MAMAMOO‘s Hwasa is receiving praise for her recent comments about ILLIT.
During her appearance on the YouTube show The K-Star Next Door, Hwasa shared the behind the scenes story about her “K-Shoe Thief” incident, spoke candidly about her school days, and more.
When asked which fourth and fifth-generation idols she would like to collaborate with, Hwasa chose ILLIT.
This five-member girl group, formed through the survival show R U Next?, debuted under BE:LIFT Lab in March of 2024.
Why ILLIT? “Actually, everyone is pretty, good-looking, and good,” Hwasa said, referring to fourth and fifth-generation idols. “I’ll be happy to work with everyone. But considering what happened, how about ILLIT? I want to see how shocking it’d be.”
After jokingly saying that ILLIT would “finally be rich” after working with Hwasa, host Jonathan Yiombi gave the collaboration his stamp of approval.
What did Hwasa mean by “what happened”? Some netizens believe Hwasa is referring to the cover she did of ILLIT’s song “Magnetic.” Given how viral the cover went, a collaboration between Hwasa and ILLIT would almost certainly generate buzz.
I don’t know you all, but I’m kind of emotional because of this. I know she said this and wants to collab because her Magnetic cover got viral. But, in the middle of ILLIT eraser everywhere, this is so heartwarming. I hope we get ILLIT and Hwasa TikTok challenge of ILLIT 1st cb. https://t.co/UnUH28sDmD
— Inez. (@0511adore) September 17, 2024
Hwasa chose ILLIT because they mentioned on the show that a fancam of Hwasa dancing to “Magnetic” garnered 10 million views and Hwasa wants to see how shocking a collab with them would be.
✨Hwasa’s new song “Na” is coming out September 19th. Check out the teaser for it below 🙂 https://t.co/uEPcafkTUz
— Star’s backup account (@StarBackup101) September 17, 2024
However, other netizens think that Hwasa could be showing support for ILLIT while alluding to the ongoing controversy affecting the group.
Not a fan of illit but this is the very first time I’ve seen an artist supporting this group after everything that happened since april 🤔 pic.twitter.com/KPLrVF8fTt
— r u b y (@rubyvely) September 17, 2024
First industry person to support Illit 😭..even her saying considering what happened she knows how much hate they got unnecessarily
— Roses are Rose 🌹 (@Lichaeppeuppeu) September 17, 2024
you guys don’t understand how much it means to me that hwasa, a member of my ult group mamamoo who are known for their bold feminism, supports illit and i assume lsf too pic.twitter.com/hL9lzLuEV8
— nevi ⚡️ (@miyawakissme) September 17, 2024
Hyejin is a sensible woman and everytime she speaks she meant what she said, i don’t think she said that only because of the tiktok video, she probably knows how illit is being treated and seen all the kmedia articles hating on them
— Mamamoo continua⁷ (@mmm_bangtan) September 17, 2024
For months, HYBE and former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin have been engaged in a feud that has impacted idols under the HYBE umbrella, including ILLIT and NewJeans. BE:LIFT Lab has been accused of plagiarizing NewJeans for ILLIT, and HYBE has been accused of allegedly instructing ILLIT to ignore NewJeans member Hanni.
Watch the episode here:
