JYP/Universal Records
A gap has unexpectedly opened in the U.S. girl group market.
For the past few years, KATSEYE, BLACKPINK, and NewJeans dominated discourse and attention in the mainstream girl group playing field. But that’s changed in recent months. KATSEYE has entered a strange stasis on the heels of member Manon’s very public (and controversial) hiatus; NewJeans is still rebuilding after two years of fraught litigation with their label; and the lukewarm reception of BLACKPINK’s latest project, Deadline, suggests that the group’s best days might be behind them. All of this has left a rare opening for someone new to step in. Could that be GIRLSET?
On Friday, GIRLSET (that’s Camila, Lexi, Kendall, and Savanna) dropped their strongest and perhaps most persuasive superstar argument yet, “Tweak.” It’s sexy drill, K-pop style, one of those late-night-sounding booty call anthems that are actually more feminist under the surface. “I’m too crazy / Boy, don’t you step out of line / Might not make it out alive,” goes the bridge. Most importantly it sounds glossy, expensive. Big. Budget. (Ditto for its neon-lit music video.) I can easily see this track riding out the rest of the spring as a dark horse song of the summer.
This is a lot more than I would’ve said about GIRLSET a year ago. GIRLSET was actually formed in 2023 through a competition show put on by South Korea’s JYP Entertainment and U.S. label Republic Records to create the world’s first “U.S. girl group” trained by the K-pop method. Sound familiar? The show that formed KATSEYE, Dream Academy by HYBE x Geffen Record, also happened that year.
It was inevitable to compare the two groups to each other once they debuted. VCHA was the initial name given to the winners of JYP and Republic’s show — and for a while it seemed that they had the edge on KATSEYE. The group released the bubbly “Girls of the Year” in January 2024 to great hype and momentum, about five months before KATSEYE dropped “Debut.” But then, things seemed to stall for VHCA — they dropped a few more songs, a tween-targeted EP, and then kinda disappeared. By then, KATSEYE had swallowed up the spotlight.
The current GIRLSET is actually a rebrand — and for dark reasons. In 2025, one of the former members of VCHA filed a lawsuit against JYP Entertainment to break her contract. In the lawsuit, KG accused JYP disturbing labor violations including being overworked, having her meals tracked, and being denied proper medical attention after suffering physical injuries. KG also alleged that a former member of the group had committed suicide, and publicized her accusations through her social media channels. In response to the lawsuit JYP released a statement that said in part, “We deeply regret KG’s decision to file a lawsuit and make unilateral public statements containing false and exaggerated claims.”
It seems that all parties eventually reached a settlement; by August 2025, KG and another member Kaylee, left the group. That same month, the remaining members of VCHA came back as GIRLSET.
I mention all of this not to rehash the albatross hovering over the group, but to consider how long the journey has already been for GIRLSET — and just how hard-won even getting these latest releases out must’ve been. The rebrand has come with a re-positioning for the better: for a while, the aesthetics around VCHA felt too tween-focused to compete with a juggernaut like KATSEYE, which was clearly targeting older, more mature, audiences that could easily overlap with young adults. With the sultrier, R&B-focused sounds that GIRLSET is now mining, it’s clear the group has changed directions.
I’m wishing the best for its members, who are all still just between the ages of 18 and 20. I feel compelled to really root them on, because of their journey and because “Tweak” is actually, really great. The praise and positive comments that now shower their YouTube videos signal that the group, despite its very rocky start, seems to have finally found its path. Let’s hope it’s only smooth sailing from here.