It's been an amazing 2025 for Katseye. From going viral with the hit "Gnarly," starring in the infamous denim ad for Gap, to earning two GRAMMY nominations—it's no surprise TikTok crowned them as their Global Artist of the Year. This year, the girl group also embarked on their first-ever tour through North America, The Beautiful Chaos Tour. The tour is in support of their second EP Beautiful Chaos. The six-member group stopped by the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles on December 13th for a sold-out performance.
Similar to K-pop shows, there was no opening act for Katseye. Instead, we were shown their music videos for 30 minutes. The speaker volume was raised to full blast as "Gnarly" started playing, exciting all the eyekons (name for their fans) as we knew this was a sign that the show was about to start. After the music video and a quick video montage, Lara Raj, Daniela Avanzini, Manon Bannerman, Yoonchae Jeung, Sophia Laforteza, and Megan Skiendiel appeared in black Y2K outfits on top of a high staircase platform. Fittingly, Katseye opened up their set with their first-ever song, “Debut.”
Right from the start, Katseye oozed charisma. They're great performers with strong vocals and impressive choreography. They sang live with no backing track; it was great to hear their voice loud and clear. It helps that the group was formed through the Netflix reality competition The Debut: Dream Academy. The show was created as an international collaboration between record labels Hybe and Geffen Records and heavily borrows from K-pop training and development systems. After receiving over 120,000 submissions from young women from around the world, Geffen Records and HYBE chose 20 contestants. The contestants trained and participated in three main singing and dancing missions, on which they were judged by a panel of experts from both companies as well as fans who voted online.
What helps strengthen Katseye’s appeal is that they come from different cultures and backgrounds from around the world. Avanzini is Venezuelan-Cuban, Bannerman is Swiss-Italian-Ghanaian, Jeung is Korean, Laforteza is Filipina, Raj is Indian, and Skiendiel is Chinese-Singaporean-American.
Thanks to this vigorous training and different cultural backgrounds, Katseye can experiment with sounds and visuals. One of the most memorable performances of the night was the Latin-inspired hit “Gabriela.” Avanzini's Spanish singing earned big cheers. Midway through the performance, the group changed into long flowy skirts and showed off their flamenco moves during a fun dance break that ended in a dramatic fashion with confetti and streamers. Before the ballad "Timelapse," Jeong took a moment to express her excitement for singing in her native tongue as the song blends Korean and English. Everyone swayed along to the music as Jeong's sweet and whispery vocals rang through the venue.
Although Katseye has great onstage charisma, the biggest drawback was the limited setlist as they have only released two EPs so far. To try to make up for it, the group did perform a few songs from The Debut: Dream Academy, including "Girls Don't Like," "Dirty Water," and "All the Same." Still, the show felt very short as some of the songs were not performed in full.
The biggest cheers of the night, of course, came towards the end of the night when the group performed their viral hit song “Gnarly.” Love it or hate it, the song's jarring lyrics and chaotic choreography are a real crowd pleaser. And the group knows that, as they kept the energy going by ending the song with an intense and chaotic dance break. Skiendiel and Jeung kicked things off with their fun hair flips, Laforteza did the split while getting rolled away by her dancers, Avanzini did an interesting front flip, Raj showed off her flexibility with a leg lift, and Bannerman was the center for the end choreography.
After a short break, the group came back for an encore performance of “Touch” and “My Way.” Before performing “My Way,” each member took a moment to say a few closing words. The girls seemed extra sentimental since the group is based in L.A. and the performance felt like a hometown show. Laforteza got teary-eyed midway through her speech and needed a moment to compose herself as her group members hugged her. “This is where it all began,” she said. “There are so many people here that we look up to and were part of our journey. It’s so comforting and truly rewarding to see all you guys supporting us. I can say this a million times over but thank you for making our dreams come true.” Ending with the pop ballad “My Way” was a nice choice as the song is about breaking free from expectations and living life on one’s own terms. A nod to their journey as a group. Hearing all six members harmonize together one last time really highlighted their strong bond.
For more on Katseye, visit katseye.world
