Monday (Nov. 27), BABYMONSTER made their long-awaited debut as YG’s new girl group with “BATTER UP.” The company’s last girl group, BLACKPINK, debuted seven years ago, in 2016. At the beginning of 2023, BABYMONSTER had an extensive social media rollout for its members: Ruka, Pharita, Asa, Rami (previously known as Haram), Rora and Chiquita.
In a statement, the group said, “We are happy to welcome this day that we’ve dreamed of for a long time. We will do our best to show our unique musical colors.”
Before BABYMONSTER’s debut, fans witnessed the group’s high-energy preparation through an evaluation process on YouTube, with episodes released over several months.
The evaluation process, titled Last Evaluation, functioned as a competition show to select the seven-member unit of BABYMONSTER. However, earlier this month, YG Entertainment revealed that Ahyeon would not be part of BABYMONSTER’s debut line-up due to “health reasons” in an official statement.
Despite their “rookie” status, the group has already “battered” through pre-established records: their debut song “BATTER UP” pulled a little over 22.5 million views in its first 24 hours, cementing a new record for a debut K-Pop group. The track combines a fiery production with catchy hooks and YG’s signature hip-hop vibe. Watch BABYMONSTER’s debut single, “BATTER UP,” below!
The record was previously held by SM Entertainment quartet aespa, who reached 21.4M views with the music video for their debut single, “Black Mamba,” in November 2020.
The rookies also hinted at new work on the way. “We are also preparing diverse content and events for our fans who have waited for our debut, so please look forward to them.”
