Since the popular music group debuted in mid-2024, with only around 20 songs, KATSEYE has accumulated well over 34 million monthly listeners. Formed through Netflix’s The Debut: Dream Academy, in the world of pop, they are best-known for their unique music and dance routines. After the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle jean advertisement scandal in late 2025, KATSEYE came out with their own jean advertisement for GAP. In the following weeks, this advertisement went viral across social media, garnering over 400 million views, sparking KATSEYE’s initial “blow up” across social media. This made the group widely recognized globally.
However, for many KATSEYE fans, the group’s new release was a massive disappointment. “Internet Girl,” released on Jan. 2, was long-awaited, and for the clear amount of effort they put into it, this song can be easily considered “an embarrassment” to the music industry. It is obvious–clearly shown by the dozens of TikToks that KATSEYE posts to the dance of their song–that they wanted this song to be their next “big hit.” For many fans, Internet Girl seems almost like they are trying to regain the fame they accumulated through their second most popular hit, “Gnarly”; however, it backfired.
It’s hard to say whether it was Daniela Avanzini’s beautiful voice being replaced with a baby’s or the poor lyricism that ruined this song, but it is clear that this song should have been kept as an unreleased track.
HYBE (formerly Big Hit Entertainment) is a major South Korean multinational entertainment and lifestyle company in which KATSEYE is a subsidiary, and as one of their most popular groups, it is unfortunate that their music is executed in this manner. HYBE writes and produces the majority of the girls’ music, excluding the group’s creativity and talent in most of their songs. KATSEYE seems to have one ultimate goal: be as unique as possible. Through their music, it is easily agreeable that their content is quite different from most. “Internet Girl” effortlessly takes the title of the most unique song of the year, and not for a good reason.
The lyrics themselves are flat-out awful. Not a single part of the song makes sense, and the chorus consists of only two words: “Eat zucchini.” On top of that, the lyrics do not even capture the girls’ voices, and instead, the vocals are masked with weird sound effects along with an extreme use of monotone autotune. Overall, the effort that the music companies put into this song is reflected in the song itself.
The KATSEYE girls underwent months, if not years, of training to secure their hard-earned positions in this group. To see their talent be used in the way it is, often masked by the overuse of autotune and desperate attempts to be different, is such a let-down for the fanbase. Hopefully, their next release will capture their true talents, or possibly allow the girls to write their own lyrics, rather than spamming the word “zucchini” repeatedly.
