Just a few days ago, K-Pop girl group LOONA passed their seven-year anniversary. The name might be familiar to even those who’ve never ventured below the surface of the K-Pop iceberg: with “Stan LOONA” being an infamous meme and cultural emblem of internet fandoms during yesteryear. All eyes were on the adorable and talented 12 when they officially debuted with “Hi High” on 20 August, 2018. Media was abuzz with positive reactions, such as NME‘s Gladys Yeo hailing the track as “flawless” and “high-octane.”
KPop Demon Hunters star Ji-young Yoo’s pick for a live-action Zoey is “Chuu from LOONA.” While promoting the second series, Wednesday’s Emma Myers also recently said that her character Enid would be a fan of the group.
It has been almost three years since Chuu was officially kicked out of LOONA, and two since all of the group’s members left their company. Commercially, the 12-piece never quite reached the heights of fellow 4th-generation K-Pop groups like aespa, IVE, or I-DLE. Yet the world still can’t forget about them.
They had all the ingredients for an uber-successful run as a group. However, their already-sizeable fanbase, the Orbits, were not investing their time and passion into LOONA simply because they gleaned potential from one excellent debut single.
No: by that point, the group had almost two full years of music to offer. Many described their diverse pre-debut discography as experimental, but such experimentation also extended toward the unprecedented way that their company, BlockBerry Creative (BBC), introduced each girl to the world.
The whole project was inventive, ambitious, grand, exhilarating… and from the very beginning, doomed to fail.
Where it all started
In March 2015, South Korea’s Corruption Investigation Department arrested Lee Kyu-tae. The former police officer, then 66, founded arms trader Il-gwang Group in 1985. However, K-Pop fans were invested because Lee was also the chairman of Il-gwang subsidiary Polaris Entertainment.
Exactly a year later, Lee’s son Lee Jong-myeong founded BlockBerry Creative, branded as Polaris’ fresh offshoot. The shiny, seemingly brand-new company would kick-start the LOONA project within just half a year, drawing in plenty of fans who had no clue of BBC’s unsavoury ties.
In Korean, LOONA is known as 이달의 소녀, literally translating to “Girl of the Month.” As the name suggested, each month, a new member was revealed. Forbes‘ Tamar Herman praised BBC’s clever “reverse engineering” strategy. First to debut was Heejin on October 5, 2016, a few weeks shy of her 16th birthday.
The 15-year-old was bright-eyed, already a competent vocalist and charismatic performer at such a young age. How easy it would’ve been to give her a generic pop single. But instead, creative director Jaden Jeong and producer MonoTree crafted an eccentric jazztronica debut for Heejin called “Vivid.”
The song’s strange inflections and instrumental textures were accompanied by an even more bizarre music video. Frequent collaborator DigiPedi evoked surrealism, such as the work of Yves Tanguy, for the clip. Although Heejin’s self-titled album only sold 657 copies that year, it sent a clear statement: LOONA wasn’t going to be your average idol group.
A long way from Eden
The LOONA project steadily gained traction, despite BBC’s no-name reputation and lack of advertising. The Orbits were drawn to the group’s compelling lore, set in Jeong’s brainchild, a Möbius strip multiverse called “the LOONAverse.” It had magic, sci-fi, superheroes, and many more.
BBC spent generous amounts of money to bring Jeong’s creative vision to life. The inter-continental filming locations alone must’ve been pricey. For instance, Haseul’s solo MV “Let Me In” was shot in Sólheimasandur, Iceland. The girls of LOONA’s Odd Eye Circle sub-unit flew to Los Angeles for “Girl Front.” The yyxy unit’s debut single, “love4eva,” utilised actual castles in Budapest, Hungary to construct its version of Eden, i.e. paradise.
Even before their full official debut in August 2018, the LOONA project’s total costs amounted to at least ₩10 billion (roughly £5.3 million). On the surface, the LOONA girls seemed to wallow in luxury, almost like paradise itself.
In reality, the members weren’t paid a single penny as the years went by. Their predatory contracts gave them little hope, too, that they would ever earn anything, no matter how much profit they generated.
By late 2020, LOONA member Chuu gained immense popularity thanks to her energetic cuteness, talent, and charm. Many brands and shows recruited her for solo gigs, and the first episode of her very own variety show, Chuu Can Do It, premiered on 7 January, 2021. A few years later, however, she alleged that she hadn’t received a single coin despite her nonstop working, due to BBC’s contract terms in which they collected the lion’s share of her earnings.
When the news broke, Orbits unearthed even more signs of abuse. For example, BBC required the then-14-year-old Yeojin to undergo a strict diet. Even worse, these restrictions apparently continued years into LOONA’s career, with fans uploading newer clips of various members admitting that they were sneaky about buying food so that the staff wouldn’t confiscate it.
Jinsoul, then 20, almost drowned on the set of her solo “Singing in the Rain” due to the crew plunging her in the water for a scene without proper preparation or training. In August 2022, LOONA embarked on a world tour. In the first month alone, the girls performed at 14 stops. The absurdly demanding schedule caused their health to suffer, with nearly the whole group dropping out one by one due to exhaustion.
All optimism towards the situation vanished in November. On the 25th, BBC announced that they were kicking Chuu out of the group, claiming that she — the group’s most popular member, globally beloved for being a ray of sunshine — had been verbally abusive towards the staff. If it wasn’t clear before that LOONA was in dire straits, it was undeniable now.
Dancing on their own
Texts leaked by the notorious Dispatch, South Korea’s equivalent of The Daily Mail or TMZ, had an effect that was perhaps the opposite of what was intended. Instead of painting Chuu as a spoiled, rude brat, it further reinforced the idea (and obvious reality) that she was a hard-working young woman whom a dodgy company preyed upon and bled dry.
It seemed like the entire South Korean entertainment industry came forward in support of Chuu and LOONA, the rest of whom also filed for injunctions to suspend their contracts with BBC. Orbits organised an impressive, highly successful boycott that made headlines.
Fast-forward to mid 2023, and each LOONA girl has been granted legal freedom by the court. BBC has collapsed due to debt and their poor reputation.
Orbits know, of course, that this is the best possible outcome. After all, they fought hard for the girls’ freedom; it was a matter beyond just K-Pop. It was about workers’ rights, women’s rights, and hell, even children’s rights, considering that half of the group were underage when BBC introduced them to the world.
Since then, all members of the group have re-debuted as idols, affirming their passion for music and performing. Chuu has enjoyed continued success as a solo act; in 2023, she won the Korean Youth Hope Award for Entertainment. Currently, she has a lead role in the ongoing rom-com drama My Girlfriend is the Man.
In 2023, Heejin, Jinsoul, Kim Lip, Choerry, and Haseul debuted as ARTMS. They’ve since garnered praise for their artsy, experimental sound and feel.
LOOSSEMBLE, consisting of Vivi, Go Won, Hyunjin, Hyeju, and Yeojin, debuted in the same year, with a brighter, peppier brand. (LOOSSEMBLE’s future is uncertain as of now, though all members remain active on social media. Hyunjin is currently in a girl group project with members outside of LOONA.)
A year later, Yves also found success as a soloist. Her recent EP, Soft Error, has received acclaim from the likes of NME and includes a PinkPantheress feature.
It’s evident that each LOONA member can stand on her own. However, Orbits still long for “OT12,” a sentiment echoed by the girls themselves. Yes, they are all wonderfully talented artists in their own right, but together, the 12 formed a unit like no other.
Not every LOONA member is a technically skilled vocalist. However, each of them has a distinct tone and flair, from Haseul’s reedy “popera” style, to Go Won’s metallic vocal qualities, to Yves’ warm, syrupy voice that always sounds like a cosy hug, to Hyunjin’s wispy airiness. The group wasn’t packed with virtuoso singers, but each and every member brought her own recognisable flavour to a LOONA track.
The same goes for their dancing. For instance, Jinsoul and Haseul were always better singers than they were dancers, yet when LOONA danced together on the stage, all 12 girls moved with striking synergy.
Where else can you find a song that incorporates a shehnai (Indian oboe) within a hip-hop/pop soundscape (“Paint the Town”)? How about one with the sound of a radar (“Why Not?”), a cackling witch in the background (“Heart Attack” by Chuu), or a member literally coughing because it’s relevant to the lyrics (“Heat”)?
LOONA’s discography was truly one-of-a-kind. Some tracks like Go Won’s “One and Only” were more obviously experimental, with the ghostly reverb added to her lines in the pre-choruses and eerie music box melodies.
However, even the most seemingly typical tracks like “Love and Live” were musically rich. That one, in particular, is chock-full of meticulous, intricate harmonies.
Perhaps someday, LOONA can perform as 12 again. For now, however, their time as a full group remains a bittersweet memory. One has to wonder if such an ingenious, ambitious, spectacular project could have survived, if not for the hubris and greed of those in power.
You can find Chuu, Yves, Loossemble, and ARTMS on Instagram.
