DearALICE’s Music Show Debut Earns Widely Mixed Reactions
In 2023, SM Entertainment and MOON&BACK launched a reality show to debut a British boy group under the K-Pop system. On August 1, the five members of dearALICE were introduced.
Reactions have varied, with Korean netizens showing interest in the upcoming boy group.
SM Entertainment’s Upcoming British Boy Band Stokes Anticipation From The Korean Public
Recently, following their attendance at 2025 SMTOWN Live, the group made their music show debut ahead of their actual debut.
On January 16, dearALICE appeared on M! Countdown, where they performed a track titled “Ariana.”
While this achievement is no doubt exciting for both the group, and fans, reactions to the performance have varied.
Many netizens shared positive thoughts about the song, citing the members improvement since they were first introduced.
Some accused the hate comments of “fetishization,” claiming that if a K-Pop group released a similar track, it would be better received.
Bro if riize released this you guys would be going crazy. Just say you have an asian obsession https://t.co/NprDXfxzHT
— apple (@aaappleyves) January 17, 2025
Now if this was a bunch of asian men y'all would be eating this up. So, I'm gonna assume y'all are fetishizers if you're gonna hate on them. The song is pretty cute 🤷♀️ https://t.co/910WYNSRl9
— ʕ•́ᴥ•̀ʔっ b | saw wonho 💙 (@cubchuu) January 17, 2025
Some netizens felt the song and choreography were lacking, especially from a group under SM Entertainment and pushed back against claims of fetishization.
Horrible song horrible choreo yeah it’s over for them pic.twitter.com/ymxeXC0J72
— miss burger (@burgerjeans) January 17, 2025
im ctfu some of y’all in the qrts are overcompensating to prove that y’all are “not like the other kpop stans” by calling everybody who doesn’t like the song an asian fetishizer… like the song is just bad and that’s okay 😭 https://t.co/zoOn3gZFJM
— 🧃 nes (@esnupijoy) January 17, 2025
they in the qrts LYING it is not fetishistic to call a bad song bad everyone regularly calls kpop bg music bad pls stfu https://t.co/TPeRl01yKo
— 🌪️ (@myngbeans) January 17, 2025
Meanwhile, dearALICE are scheduled to officially debut in February 2025.
