The pop industry is littered with the remains of iconic bands that collapsed under the weight of internal drama: British boyband Five split after backstage brawls turned physical, 90s pop collective All Saints disbanded over a petty argument about a jacket, and Britrock legends Oasis endured a 16-year split after Liam Gallagher pelted brother Noel with a piece of fruit. What is far less common is a musical act willing to openly address their rifts, work through friction, and emerge stronger on the other side. That makes the latest full-length album from global K-pop phenomenon Le Sserafim a truly remarkable outlier in modern pop.
Nestled in the heart of the group’s new tracklist is the raw, introspective single “Need Your Company”, a track that lays bare the past interpersonal tension between Huh Yunjin, the group’s New York-born vocalist, and leader Kim Chaewon. Over a gentle, melancholy guitar riff, the pair sing lines that cut straight to complicated, messy human connection: “Is friendship all just for show? / I really wanna trust you… no matter how you hurt me.”
In an interview from her label’s Seoul offices, Yunjin opened up about the emotional core of the track, explaining it explores the awkward, conflicting feeling of craving closeness with someone while struggling to vocalize that vulnerability. “There are times when you doubt your own emotions, like, ‘Oh, am I the only one who wants to be this intimate? Are they not committed to this relationship?’” she said.
Chaewon, who was unable to attend the interview while recovering from a neck injury, previously framed the friction behind the song as a failure of communication rather than deep personal dislike. Speaking to Korean talk show *Lee Mu-jin Service*, she noted that all people have inherently different personalities, and the pair spent months working to adapt to those differences. For Yunjin, even opening up about pain was an act of care: “Sometimes saying, ‘you hurt me’, can sound harsh, but it can also mean I care enough about us that I want things to get better,” she wrote in the album’s liner notes. Chaewon echoed that sentiment, confirming that after their honest conversation, the pair actually grew closer – close enough, in fact, to complete a heart-stopping 233-metre tandem bungee jump off Macau Tower together. After the jump, Chaewon laughed that she spent the entire fall clinging to Yunjin.
This willingness to confront hard feelings head-on is far from a one-off for the quintet, which also includes Japanese members Miyawaki Sakura and Nakamura Kazuha, and youngest member Hong Eunchae. Since debuting in 2022, the group has carved out a unique niche in K-pop, blending radical self-awareness with playful, unapologetic absurdity. Their name, an anagram of the phrase “I’m Fearless”, established their early brand: combative, bulletproof confidence, paired with sophisticated bass-driven dance hits like *Antifragile* and *Unforgiven* that cemented their mainstream appeal.
But their resolve was tested early on by a vicious, sustained online hate campaign that targeted every part of the group, from their live vocal performances to their physical appearance, and even their family members. A 2024 documentary laid bare the heavy toll that vitriol took on the five members, with Sakura – a seasoned industry veteran who previously performed with J-pop’s HKT48 and global project group Iz*One – breaking down in tears as she questioned why she continued to put herself through the pain of public scrutiny.
Against all odds, Le Sserafim turned that hardship into success, growing into one of the best-selling pop acts on the planet. They have notched five Top 10 albums in the United States, and their tracks have amassed more than 33,000 appearances on Spotify’s global charts. As they have matured both as people and artists, their music has grown more adventurous and genre-bending: 2024’s *Crazy* drew inspiration from New York ballroom culture with pulsing house beats, while 2025’s *Come Over* enlisted production from beloved British dance collective Jungle. Even fellow artists have taken note: British singer-producer PinkPantheress, a self-professed fan, collaborated on a remix of *Crazy* and hailed the group’s music as “way ahead of its time”.
The group has also paid forward the resilience they built through hardship, mentoring newer labelmates Katseye as the rookie group navigated their own run-ins with internet trolls. “Yunjin, I talk to her almost every single day,” Katseye member Sophia Laforteza said, with bandmate Lara Raj adding, “I feel like, if there is anyone that would understand us, it’s them.”
A masterclass in handling online hate came in the form of the group’s 2025 one-off single *Spaghetti*, a deliciously sarcastic takedown of obsessive haters that asks the blunt question: If we’re really that terrible, why are you so obsessed with us? Packed with layered hooks and a showstopping guest verse from BTS’ J-Hope, the track became a massive viral hit and marked a creative turning point for the group. “We realised how positive and energetic we are, especially on tour. It turns out that having fun looks really good on us,” Yunjin explained. “That helped us narrow down what we want to do for our new music, and that’s how Spaghetti came along.”
The track’s quirky visuals and unapologetic fun opened a new creative chapter for the group, who have long been known for their off-stage humor – from their absurd attempts to sneak out of rehearsals, to their relentless gentle teasing of youngest member Eunchae, to the time Kazuha snuck into a concert queue disguised in a full horse costume – and now they’re weaving that personality into their recorded music.
Another album track, *Saki*, leans into this playful satire, building a raucous posse rap around a fake alter-ego that Sakura created to mock the absurd online rumors that follow the group. “It’s kind of satire,” Yunjin explained. “Everybody’s like, ‘Who the heck is Saki?’ Why is everybody so obsessed with her? Is she a nepo-baby? I heard she’s the rudest person. No, I’ve heard she stays sober and drives everyone home from parties.’” The punchline? Sakura laughs that Saki is actually an introvert who never attends parties, preferring to stay home and knit. For Sakura, hobbies like crocheting and knitting are a way to hold onto her identity outside of the group: “I’m kind of afraid to just be ‘Sakura from Le Sserafim’,” she said. “That’s why I try to take on a lot of different hobbies, because even if you’re going through hard times, when you go into the world of crochet, all those fears are brushed away.” Her knitting hobby has even spawned its own line of official merchandise, while Kazuha’s famous horse costume stunt has inspired hundreds of viral memes.
At its core, the new album is a love letter to the solidarity that has kept the group intact through every high and low. Before writing and recording began, Yunjin – who co-wrote the majority of the album’s tracks – sat down with each bandmate to talk through their shared experiences and feelings. “She’s one of our closest friends,” Kazuha said. “We’ve been through the same things and shared a lot of different emotions. The fact that she can make that into a song for us, so we can speak through the lyrics, means a lot.” Yunjin summed up the album’s core mission: “Overall, we had the same sentiment. We wanted to talk about how this sisterhood helped us become resilient, so that we’re able to dream and to run again.”
The album’s lead single *Celebration* brings that message of solidarity to the dancefloor, while redefining what the group’s “fearless” brand means four years into their career. “During our early days, fearless meant that we’re free of fear, and that’s why we’re strong,” Sakura explained. “In the era of ‘Fearless 2.0’, we don’t deny fear but we embrace it. We use fear as fuel to go forward.”
Perhaps the group’s most fearless creative move yet is their latest single *Boompala*, which samples 1990s novelty hit *The Macarena* over a thumping Latin House beat. The unlikely combination shouldn’t work on paper – but it defies expectations, resulting in another viral smash. The track’s opening choreography, which shows Chaewon pausing mid-meditation to sneak in a silly dance, has exploded in popularity on TikTok, and the album has already sold more than 500,000 physical copies worldwide in its first week.
For long-time fans who have stood by the group through every hardship, the band’s transition into a happier, more confident new era is deeply heartwarming. The group will kick off their second world tour this July, marking their first ever UK show with a stop at London’s O2 Arena on 16 October. Eunchae says the new tour will build on the raucous party atmosphere of their 2025 *EasyCrazyHot* run, packed with new ideas for staging and performance that the group brainstormed on their first world tour, which wrapped in January. “On tour, we kept thinking, ‘Maybe we can try this kind of performance or that kind of stage direction next time’. So we’ve added lots of those ideas. I think it’s going to be a visual and aural feast,” she said.
Yunjin also teased that more new music is on the horizon before the tour wraps in December, pointing to the album’s title, which is labeled as “Part 1”. For fans who have fallen in love with the group’s raw honesty and unapologetic joy, that can only be good news. Tickets for Le Sserafim’s O2 Arena show are on sale now.
