BabyMonster, the highly anticipated girl group from YG Entertainment, is in the starting blocks and ready to win hearts!
Back in early 2020, the label confirmed that a new girl group was planned, and in 2021 the name was already set. But although there were rumors for a long time that the girl group would debut in 2022, K-Pop fans had to be patient for another year.
On December 30, 2022, however, YG Entertainment got the ball rolling with a teaser poster on Twitter showing seven shadows and the announcement: COMING SOON.
We are now approaching the debut with big steps: On February 8, the first videos were finally uploaded to BabyMonster’s official YouTube channel and Instagram account. In several clips, the seven members introduced themselves one after another. Today the round of introductions ended with the last member, Haram!
If you missed all of that, you’re in exactly the right place.
We’ll give you a quick overview of all seven members so you can join the conversation:
As you may already be able to tell from their names, they have different backgrounds. Ahyeon, Haram and Rora come from South Korea, Ruka and Asa from Japan, and Pharita and Chiquita from Thailand. We love that every member has at least one groupmate from the same home country!
After Lisa from Blackpink, Pharita and Chiquita are the first Thai idols at YG Entertainment. There are only a few idols from the country in general; the best known include Nickhun from 2PM, BamBam from GOT7, Sorn (formerly CLC) and Ten from NCT/ WayV.
RUKA
- Full name: Kawai Ruka
- Birthday: March 20, 2002
- Nationality: Japan
Let me introduce: A charismatic and confident rapper from Japan who was discovered at a YG audition in 2018. At 20 years old, Ruka is the oldest member of BabyMonster and can not only rap, but above all dance! She has been dancing since she was six years old, which makes her the most experienced in the girl group.
In the live performance on YouTube, Ruka shows herself as a cool rapper, but behind the stage she is very cheerful and radiates youthful charm. As sweet and funny as she is when she introduces herself, she doesn’t seem like the oldest: In the morning Ruka drinks a glass of milk, and when she goes out alone, she proudly orders a coffee to show that she is grown up. And of course she drinks it, even though it is pretty bitter. Ruka also does Pilates regularly to keep her body in shape and build muscle. On top of that, it improves her balance when dancing.
PHARITA
- Full name: Pharita Chaikong
- Birthday: August 26, 2005
- Nationality: Thailand
She sings with a charming accent, has a round face and a very big smile! Pharita Chaikong is 17 years old and comes from Thailand. She is not the youngest member of Babymonster, but as cute as she looks, we almost took her for the Maknae.
Pharita took part in a YG audition in July 2020 and prevailed against 1226 other applicants! She plays guitar and would like to be like Blackpink’s Lisa. Since becoming a trainee, she has of course improved her singing, but has also worked on her weaknesses. When Pharita came to Korea, she didn’t speak a single word of Korean yet. Now she speaks the language fluently and has also learned to put more power into her dance moves. We are curious what she will show us in the future!
RORA
- Real name: Lee Dain
- Birthday: August 5, 2008
- Nationality: South Korea
14-year-old Rora comes from Korea and introduced herself to us with a powerful voice. She was previously active in a children’s group called U.SSO Girl under the stage name “U.ha”. Besides Rora, Hyein from New Jeans was also a member of the group, and the two are still friends.
Rora not only has a talent for singing, but is also known for her enchanting and varied facial expressions. YG Entertainment discovered her in 2018 and asked her to come to an audition. She passed the audition and has been a trainee ever since. Rora is very dedicated and determined, because every day after school she takes a two-hour bus ride to YG Entertainment to train there. Her passion will surely win her many fans once she finally stands on stage with the others!
ASA
- Full name: Enami Asa
- Birthday: April 17, 2006
- Nationality: Japan
Asa is 16 years old, loves hip-hop and, like Ruka, started dancing as a child. She learns new moves especially quickly, which according to her trainer is partly because she asks so many detailed questions. Like many of the other members, Asa took part in a YG audition in 2018 and has been training at YG Entertainment ever since. She comes from Japan and therefore has an especially close relationship with Ruka.
Asa showed off her talent with a charismatic and rhythmic rap performance. Her extremely good sense of rhythm shows both when she raps and when she dances. She has also already composed her own song called “Diary”. We hope that Asa gets the chance to use her talents and keep developing.
CHIQUITA
- Real name: Riracha Phondechaphiphat
- Birthday: February 17, 2009
- Nationality: Thailand
If we had to describe Chiquita in a few words, they would probably be “Potential”, “Young” and “Cheerful”. Chiquita is the sweet Maknae of BabyMonster with the shortest training time. She was only discovered in March 2021 at the YG Thailand audition. Just three months later, she convinced founder Yang Hyun Suk of her potential at her first presentation at YG Entertainment. And so Chiquita joined BabyMonster as the seventh and last member. When a live performance of her was uploaded to YouTube at the end of January, Chiquita was still 13. Since her birthday was on February 17, she is now 14 years old. That makes her not only the youngest in BabyMonster, but also one of the youngest K-Pop idols overall.
Both Yang Hyun Suk and Lisa from Blackpink are of the opinion that Chiquita is just as good as other trainees who have already been at it for several years. And that’s saying something, since Lisa is known from Chinese survival shows as a critical mentor. In her performance video, Chiquita enchants us with her soft and emotional voice. In the other videos, she smiles a lot and shows that she likes teddy bears. Whether as a stuffed toy or as a print on a T-shirt!
AHYEON
- Full name: Jung Ahyeon
- Birthday: April 11, 2007
- Nationality: South Korea
She can sing as well as rap and dance. In addition to Korean, she also speaks fluent Chinese and English. 15-year-old Ahyeon is a real all-rounder! She already brought all of these talents with her when she took part in an audition at YG Entertainment in 2018. Ahyeon has a rather deep voice, but also surprises us with high notes. Her dance moves are controlled and detailed. According to her dance trainer, she is the perfect center because she has the right balance and great facial expressions.
All this talent doesn’t come out of nowhere. Ahyeon has been learning English since she was 5 and Chinese since she was 7. And she developed her passion for dancing at the age of five. Her strength and muscles, by the way, come from 800 ab exercises that she does every day! Respect!
HARAM
- Full name: Shin Haram
- Birthday: October 17, 2007
- Nationality: South Korea
Haram has many years of experience in front of the camera, because she has been modeling for commercials and photo shoots since she was 2 years old! In the meantime, the sweet child has grown into a pretty and confident 15-year-old. She has great singing talent and already impressed in her live performance video in January with her clear and powerful voice. But even the confident Haram got butterflies when she performed in front of her role model Rosé (Blackpink) at one of her monthly evaluations.
Singing powerfully seems to come easily to Haram, but she has to try harder when dancing. Before the YG audition in 2018, where she was discovered, she had never danced before! So she trained especially hard, sometimes up to 10 hours a day. On days off she even booked a practice room nearby to keep training. Her hard work paid off, because very soon she will debut as an idol and thereby fulfill her long-cherished dream.
It’s almost time. There is still no exact date, but it surely won’t be long until these seven talents take the stage by storm!
This group simply has everything: incredible voices, impressive moves, charm and passion. Their potential is almost endless when you consider how young most of them are. But thanks to the older members like Ruka (20) and Pharita (17), the girl group doesn’t lack maturity either. There are almost seven years between Ruka and the Maknae Chiquita!
BabyMonster has to live up to high expectations, because the last girl group that YG Entertainment produced was Blackpink in 2016.
Blackpink are now international superstars who have inspired hundreds of thousands of young, talented girls to fight for their dream. Among these girls are also the members of BabyMonster.
YG’s founder Yang Hyunsuk hopes that BabyMonster will shock the world. We have no doubt that they will accept the challenge and make a name for themselves in the fiercely competitive K-Pop industry.
Are you ready?
Sources: BabyMonster YouTube, YG Entertainment YouTube, BabyMonster Instagram, YG Entertainment Twitter, YG Family, Soompi article
