Despite an impressive breakout in the US, K-pop girl group NewJeans hit an unexpected roadblock in their path to stardom. Last November, the quintet declared their intention to end their contract with HYBE-backed label, Ador, due to “mistreatment.” The label denies the group’s accusations, and has filed a lawsuit to prevent them from breaking away and signing with another label.
Today, though, Haerin (Kang Haerin), Minji (Kim Minji), Hyein (Lee Hye-in), Danielle (Danielle Marsh), and Hanni (Pham Ngoc Han) >announced that they are reforming as a <a href="https://uproxx.com/pop/who-are-the-members-of-new-jeans/" target="_blank" new group, NJZ. Their first gig will be at the ComplexCon Hong Kong festival in March, where they will debut a new song.
Hanni told CNN in an interview about the name change, “We are working a lot to resolve everything so that we can go… back to normal.” She said that the name change would help the group turn “this rough period of time into something more exciting.”
The group is creating new music, which Haerin says will have a “very unique and different sound.” As for why the new name sounds so similar to their old one, the Hanni said, “Even though we have to leave our previous name behind us for a bit, we’re not fully moving on from it. And we don’t want to either, because (being NewJeans) was still a very special period of time to us, and it’s something that our fans also probably hold really dear.”
