A decade after Wonder Girls became the first K-pop act to land a single on the Hot 100 chart with the English-language variant of their hit song “Nobody,” the company behind the historic K-pop girl group is back with another new team.
Announced today (Jan. 20), ITZY follows in the path of other prominent girl groups that came out of the the label including miss A and TWICE. The new act features five members: Yuna, Ryujin, Chaeryeong, Lia, and Yeji.
ITZY is the first girl group from JYP Entertainment since TWICE debuted with “Like Ooh-Ahh” in 2015.
Besides following a long line of popular girl groups from one of South Korea’s “Big 3” K-pop agencies, ITZY has already gained a lot of attention as Ryujin and Chaeryeong have competed on South Korean television shows. Chaeryeong, whose sister Chaeyeon is part of IZ*ONE, appeared on several K-pop-associated K-pop shows, including 2013’s K-Pop Star 3 and Sixteen, the show through which TWICE was formed in 2015, and Ryujin appeared on last year’s Mixnine.
ITZY’s members were revealed through a brief video that introduced the five through a sassy, girl crush video full of glam athleisure looks, power poses, and weapons as props. The group’s name is derived from the Korean word that means “is there.” See below.