Starting Friday, September 1, 2023, you can watch the brand new talent show on YouTube Dream Academy. In this competition, 20 girls compete for a place in the newest international K-pop group. The search is led by HYBE, BTS Corporation, LE SSERAFIM and NewJeans, among others, in association with US record label Geffen Records. The 20 participants were introduced at today’s press conference.
Nowadays, many K-Pop groups are formed through talent shows. For example, there have already been IOI, IZ*ONE, Wanna One, and X1 in the past, and ENHYPEN, Kep1er, and ZEROBASEONE are currently active, among others. These talent shows almost always include Korean (or Japanese) shows, but that’s about it Dream Academy change in. Dream Academy Looking for an international girl group, which will therefore include an English program.
First appearance: Dream Academy
in First appearance: Dream Academy 20 participants will compete against each other. They were selected from over 120,000 entries from around the world following a call from HYBE and Geffen Records in November 2021.
First appearance: Dream Academy It can be viewed on YouTube from Friday 1st September 2023 at 5pm BST. It will consist of 12 episodes, the last of which will be a large-scale live finale on Friday, November 17, 2023, in which we will get to know who will be the members of the global girl group. Fans will be able to vote for their favorite participants throughout the weeks via TikTok and the Weverse fan platform.
There will be another documentary on Netflix in 2024 in which we will see more about the selection process and training that the participants go through.
From Argentina to Sweden
It’s an international competition and they took it very seriously this time around. The 20 participants come from 12 different countries. This concerned six participants from the United States, three from Japan and two from Korea. Other girls come from Argentina, Brazil, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, Slovakia, Belarus, Sweden and Switzerland. In total there are participants from five different continents.
All the girls are between the ages of 14 and 21, thus beating out 120,000 other interested parties. In the first teaser, the participants have already highlighted their singing or dancing talent.
The participants are:
- Adela, 19 years old, Slovakia
- Brooklyn, 17, United States
- Celeste, 19 years old, Argentina
- Daniela, 19, USA
- Emily, 17, USA
- Ezrella, 20, Australia
- Hinari, 14, Japan
- Ilya, 21 years old, Belarus
- Carly, 19 years old, USA
- Lara, 17 years old, USA
- Lexi, 19 years old, Sweden
- Manon, 21, Switzerland
- Marquez, 17 years old, Thailand
- Megan, 17, USA
- May 17, Japan
- Na Young, 21 years old, South Korea
- Samara, 17, Brazil
- Sofia, 20 years old, Philippines
- A, 15, Japan
- Yoon Chae, 15 years old, South Korea
