It’s February 21, 2019, and the five members of ITZY are standing on the stage of one of the most popular music shows in Korea, M Countdown, staring breathless at the screen as the numbers tally up to determine the week’s winner.
The group stands stock-still, heavy tension in their shoulders. The final count starts tallying numbers in various categories: digital sales, physical album sales, social media scores, online pre-voting, broadcast scores, and live votes, all metrics that aim to put a number on influence, on legacy. Lia, the group’s baby-faced 19-year old vocalist, takes a deep breath and grabs onto leader Yeji and the group’s rapper and dancer Ryujin.
Moments later — just nine days after debut — ITZY earned their first music show win for debut track “Dalla Dalla,” becoming the fastest girl-group in the industry history to do so. Audiences watched as the members, visibly flustered and teary-eyed, said the first of what would ultimately be many thank yous, after many wins.
Now, just over a year after their debut, ITZY has made being proud of who they are their ultimate ethos, with an enviable list of accomplishments to their name. Peaking at No. 2 on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales Charts, “Dalla Dalla” registered 17.1 million "day-of" views on YouTube, breaking the record for the most viewed K-pop debut music video in history, according to Billboard. At the 2020 Korean Music Awards, ITZY earned two nominations — Best Pop Song and Rookie Of The Year — and the group was one of the few idol acts in the list, a feat they achieved by establishing themselves as a Gen Z K-pop group for whom self-expression and identity trump coming off as “likeable” or “soft-spoken,” as their fierce songs clarify.
And so they have the numbers, they have the wins. But part of ITZY’s magic is that as a concept, they can stand apart from those things. ITZY has ridden in on a platform of self-love, of not letting outside forces define you. No matter how much you stand out from the crowd, they say, it’s OK that “the kids and I are different,” as they sing on “Dalla Dalla.” The early music show victory reinforced to the industry that they’re a group to watch — but they’ve known that what they worked for and what they believed in mattered all along.
“It was like a dream to be nominated. We were all saying ‘It can’t be true,’” 19-year-old Yeji tells Teen Vogue over email. But ITZY fans, known as MIDZY, can 100% believe it: “Itzy just brings a certain energy and commanding presence in their performances and music,” a fan on Reddit gushed about the song “Wannabe." Another added: “I love the fact that ITZY keeps staying true to their own colors and set[s] a tone and style for themselves.”
A closer look at ITZY's trajectory hints at why this push for uniqueness is so important to them. Since most of the members were known in the entertainment industry before they debuted under JYP Entertainment, creating their own spaces was essential. Yeji earned the moniker “JYP’s secret weapon” for her lethal dance moves on SBS’s The Fan, while Chaeryeong competed on JYP’s musical survival show Sixteen, the winners of which ultimately debuted as TWICE. Ryujin, who was scouted by the company at a GOT7 concert, sought to prove herself on Mix Nine. The members were no stranger to the spotlight or the pressure to stand out while fitting in just enough to reach big audiences. And when everything about you invites scrutiny, you learn pretty quickly that being proud of your differences has to be part of who you are. It’s not just a group concept; to them, there is no other way of being.
But that feeling of being examined, of being watched, has become a frequent motif in ITZY’s music videos. "Wannabe," released in March, shows Chaeryeong sitting in a factory surrounded by a line of pre-packaged clothes; drones start closing in on her. Later in the song, the group is more explicit about the constant policing of their lives, saying “Everybody’s teaching me/ all eyes on me/ Do this, do that, all are dishing out something.” In “Icy” — the “Wannabe” predecessor they describe as “cooler and brighter” — the public attention is almost intrusive. As they refute the idea that women should be nice and smiley (“I see that I’m icy…”), Lia catches looks as she walks into a diner decked out in a ball gown, while Ryujin attracts stares for showing up to an interview in pink hair, shorts, and metal-tinted boots. But they move through those spaces anyway, channeling a quiet sort of confidence.
With Yeji at 19 and the youngest, Yuna, at 16, the members all fall in the age where societal expectations go from being an abstract concept to an omnipresent force. When you’re coming of age, what you should do and what you want to do become two very different things — ITZY’s songs create a world where they can actually be the same.
They’re able to do that in large part by finding and enjoying who they are when the cameras are off. “Most of the members are different when they’re off camera,” Yuna says. “You can say that there’s a gap between the two images — we show off very charismatic performances on stage, but when we’re off stage, we act like other teenage girls. We like silly jokes, we chat a lot, we like delicious food, and we have a lot of fun. At the same time, we still try to always act with care.”
Though they’ve spent every waking moment for the past couple years training and performing together, the downtime is where they truly understand and learn from each other. Away from sweating it out in the practice room for hours on end, it’s stopping and laughing at the little things — taking pictures when Yuna dropped her phone into the ocean in a fit of excited jumping, cruising on the Seine on a chilly Paris evening, and filling their pockets with scrumptious chocolate as they do on their travelogue show Paris et Itzy. Experiencing life together eventually translates into synchronicity on the stage. “Going to Paris to film our reality show was a very memorable experience,” says Chaeryeong. “It made me realize that I can learn and experience so many things through traveling with our members.”
“The teamwork we built up is important. It plays a big role even though we are a mish-mash of personalities,” adds Yeji. “We have a very comfortable dynamic, which contributes to our synergy, and we think people see that and love the relationship we have.”
Among the members, growing and learning from each other is a constant process, given that nearly all of them were acquainted with the spotlight before debut. In their behind-the-scenes videos, they’re often seen clustered around a monitor, watching their choreographies with hawk eyes and openly applauding each other’s charms. While the current group dynamic is a lot different from that of a music survival show, the members hold their pre-debut lessons close.
“We’re the oldest, but there are times the other three actually take care of us more than we do, so we appreciate that a lot,” says Lia about her and Yeji’s dynamic with the younger members. For the two of them, it’s also essential to create channels where the younger members feel comfortable. She continues: “We try to talk and share our thoughts. As far as we are together as ITZY, we are a team, not just one person, so we try to listen to each other a lot.”
Ryujin, Chaeryeong, and Yuna, on the other hand, have fallen right into their roles as the maknae line (made up of the youngest members in the group) and the mood-makers. Yuna, in particular, has been designated the primary “energizer.” In a VLive broadcast last year, Chaeryeong emphasized how thankful she was for the youngest member, saying: “It must be really tough for Yuna, because she’s so energetic but with no one her age, there must be difficulties. But she never shows it and makes it fun for us.”
Ryujin, however, underscores that it’s all thanks to the elder members that they can let loose. “We feel a little bit less pressure because Yeji and Lia are doing so well as the leader and as the oldest,” she tells Teen Vogue. “The three of us try to contribute to brightening the atmosphere. We can enjoy our schedule more if we’re feeling good and having fun.” Yuna seconded the emotion on a recent broadcast of MBC’s Idol Radio, where she praised Yeji for her sound leadership: “Since [Yeji] is the leader she could take a forceful approach, but she doesn’t — she always listens to us.”
Relationships and leadership are especially important for the group now, as they continue to reach new milestones. They recently had their first U.S. showcase tour, and while it came “much earlier than expected,” as Ryujin puts it, their first tour abroad was a litmus test for their dynamic, with the members leaning on each other to understand the future they want to create. Yuna, especially, commends the oldest members in the group, Yeji and Lia, for their stalwart presence: “There are times when our environment or situations change abruptly, but Yeji and Lia have very good 'sense' and are the types to stay calm. I think their ability to handle those fluid situations is something our members admire.”
For the members, it’s this internal support — and the constant support from their fans — that’s the highlight of their year, and the catalyst that keeps them going. “We tried to be careful and sometimes we were worried because everything was new to us,” Ryujin says, “but since we had each other, and our MIDZY were always there for us, we were able to make it to this point together.”
With “Wannabe” already on its second music show win, ITZY are delving deeper into the same confident energy they debuted with, this time with even more experience (and shoulder moves that surely cannot be attempted by mere mortals). But no matter the wins ahead, ITZY already knows what they believe in: Don’t let anyone else define your life. You’re perfect when you’re you.
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