HYBE and Universal Music Group‘s Geffen Records have revealed that three contestants from their 2023 Dream Academy competition will join a new four-member global group, giving the former KATSEYE hopefuls a second chance at stardom.
Samara Siqueira, Lexie Levin, and Emily Kelavos have been confirmed as members of the unnamed group, set to debut in 2026.
The announcement was made via a promo video uploaded on HYBE’s social media pages.
Both Kelavos (from Texas) and Siqueira (from Brazil) advanced to the final elimination round of The Debut: Dream Academy before the judges cut them from the KATSEYE lineup.
Meanwhile, Levin from Sweden withdrew from the competition in the later part of the program due to competitive pressure following an elimination round. On Episode 7 of Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE on Netflix, Levin said: “This life is not for me.”
The fourth member of the new group will emerge from World Scout: The Final Piece, a new audition program that recently held a casting call in Japan via a partnership with ABEMA.
The Japan-based auditions target women and “non-binary” individuals aged 15 to 24 through nationwide auditions running from August 6 through September 22.
Selected candidates will undergo training in Japan from October through December, followed by a Los Angeles-based training ahead of a US debut in 2026.
The selection process involves three rounds of Tokyo-based screenings, and final judging in the US.
The decision to recruit Dream Academy contestants instead of conducting fresh auditions suggests a strategy of leveraging previous investments in developing those talents.
HYBE and Geffen had already spent resources training these contestants and evaluating their market potential during the original competition.
KATSEYE’s successful debut likely drove the decision to fast-track a second girl group using available talent.
The six-member group’s EP Beautiful Chaos appeared on both Billboard and UK Official charts while their 13-city North American tour sold out completely. The group’s singles Gnarly and Gabriela also saw multi-week runs on the Billboard Hot 100.
KATSEYE — whose members are Sophia Laforteza, Lara Raj, Yoonchae, Daniela Avanzini, Manon Bannerman and Megan Skiendiel — were among the performers during the recent Lollapalooza in Chicago.
In an interview with The Korea Times last month, KATSEYE’s Bannerman said: “It’s our first festival ever… We’ve worked so hard for it, and now we’re at a point where we’re just ready to take over the stage and let Chicago know who we are.”
Commenting on KATSEYE’s success back in March, HYBE CEO Jason Jaesang Lee, said: “The group has received so much attention and affection from listeners and music critics worldwide. The success of KATSEYE demonstrate[s] that the K-pop system can work in the U.S.”
The original Dream Academy competition, announced in November 2021, drew over 120,000 applications globally before narrowing to 20 finalists who trained in Los Angeles and South Korea for several months.
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