NewJeans (Korean: 뉴진스; RR: Nyujinseu), also known as NJZ (엔제이지; Enjeiji), is a South Korean girl group formed by ADOR, a sub-label of Hybe. The group is composed of five members: Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein. Mainly produced by Min Hee-jin, they are known for their 'girl next door' image and musical stylings reminiscent of the 1990s and 2000s.
The group debuted under the name NewJeans on July 22, 2022, with the single "Attention", their first number-one song on South Korea's Circle Digital Chart. It was followed shortly afterwards by two other singles, "Hype Boy" and "Cookie", with "Hype Boy" becoming the longest-running song on the Billboard Global 200 by a K-pop female act. The singles were all featured on their eponymous debut extended play (EP), released in August 2022. In January 2023, they released their first single album, OMG, to commercial success. It was accompanied by two singles, "Ditto" and "OMG". "Ditto" gained widespread popularity, becoming the longest-running number-one song on the Circle Digital Chart and the group's first entry on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart.
Their second EP, Get Up, peaked at number one on the US Billboard 200 and sold over one million copies in South Korea. Its lead single, "Super Shy", became the group's highest-charting single on the Billboard Global 200 (number two), the US Billboard Hot 100, and the UK Singles Chart. NewJeans has received rookie awards and was featured in listicles such as Time Next Generation Leaders and Forbes Korea Power Celebrity 40. IFPI named NewJeans the eighth best-selling artist worldwide in 2023.
In 2024, a dispute over NewJeans' management arose as former ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin and the members clashed with Hybe and ADOR executives. The members sought to terminate their contract, which ADOR denied. In March 2025, the Seoul Central District Court sided with ADOR, blocking the group's independent activities. The group plans to appeal, with a hearing set for April 2025. The group announced a break from all activities in March 2025.
Name
The group's original name "NewJeans" alludes to the idea that jeans are a timeless fashion item and the group's intention to carve a timeless image for themselves. The name is also a word play on the phrase "new genes", referring to the group ushering a new generation of pop music.
In 2025, the members changed their name to "NJZ" amid their contract dispute with Hybe.
History
2011–2022: Pre-debut activities and formation
Before debuting with NewJeans, several group members were involved in television, music and dance. When Australian-born Danielle Marsh lived in South Korea, she was a regular cast member of tvN's Rainbow Kindergarten, a variety show that aired until 2011. She also appeared in the TV shows Jesse's Play Kitchen and My Heart's Crayon. Hyein debuted as a member of the children's music group U.SSO Girl alongside Rora of Babymonster in November 2017 under the stage name U.Jeong, before departing from the group one year later. In December 2020, she joined the music group and YouTube collective Play With Me Club formed by PocketTV, and graduated from the group on May 3, 2021. Vietnamese-Australian Hanni Pham began performing in Melbourne as a member of the Aemina Dance Crew who covered choreographies of K-pop groups.
Preparations for a new girl group in collaboration between Hybe and Source Music began as early as 2019 where Min Hee-jin was to be the creative director, after joining as the chief brand officer that same year. Min was widely recognized for her art direction as visual director at SM Entertainment. At the time of Min joining in 2019, it was revealed she would be the creative lead in multiple girl groups, excluding Big Hit, while a separate label would also be established later where she would be a producer. Global auditions took place between September and October 2019. Minji, a Source Music trainee, was featured in the promotional videos for these auditions. Various other auditions were held, and it was later revealed Hanni was the only trainee from the Plus Global Auditions to join NewJeans. Other members came from various backgrounds: Danielle was a former YG Entertainment trainee, passing a separate Source Music audition in July 2020 while Haerin was a trainee at another agency and was street cast at the end of 2019, officially joining Source in early 2020. Hanni and Minji made a guest appearance in BTS's 2021 music video for "Permission to Dance". All of the members then transferred to ADOR at the end of 2021.
In late 2021, it was announced that the project moved to Hybe's newly established independent label ADOR, after Min was appointed the label's CEO. A second round of global auditions were held between December 2021 and January 2022, and the group's line-up was finalized in March 2022. Dubbed "Min Hee-jin's Girl Group" by several media outlets, the group was originally scheduled to launch in 2021 but was later postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2022–2023: Debut with New Jeans, and OMG
On July 1, 2022, ADOR teased the launch of their new girl group by posting three animated videos of the numbers "22", "7" and "22", fuelling speculation that content would be released on July 22. That day, NewJeans surprise-released the music video for their debut single, "Attention", without any prior promotion or information on the group's lineup. Billboard described the move as "risky-but-ultimately invigorating", crediting its success to "an emphasis on the music before anything else". The video was followed by the announcement of their upcoming self-titled debut extended play, which would contain four songs including two additional singles.
NewJeans released their second single, "Hype Boy", on July 23, 2022, along with a clip revealing the members' names and four music videos specific to their perspectives. "Hype Boy" reached number two on the South Korean Circle Digital Chart, while it became the longest-running song on the Billboard Global 200 by a K-pop female act, charting for 42 weeks. A music video for their b-side "Hurt" was released two days later. Pre-orders for the EP surpassed 444,000 copies in three days. NewJeans released their debut EP for download and streaming on August 1, 2022, alongside its third single, "Cookie". Pitchfork described New Jeans as a plush and stylish collection of '90s and '00s-indebted R&B. "Cookie" was criticized by some reviewers, who thought the lyrics contained a sexual innuendo. ADOR denied the accusation and stated that the lyrics refer to "the paired idea of burning CDs and baking cookies, which share the same conceptual verb in Korean". The physical version of the EP was released on August 8 and sold over one million copies, becoming the best selling debut album by a K-pop female act in South Korea and the only debut album to achieve this since Circle Chart's establishment in 2011. The group made their broadcast debut on Mnet's M Countdown on August 4, performing all three singles. In October 2022, they held their first live performances overseas, appearing at KCON in Saudi Arabia and Japan. At the end of the year, they won rookie awards at the Melon Music Awards, the Golden Disc Awards, the Korean Music Awards, the Seoul Music Awards, the Asia Artist Awards, and The Fact Music Awards.
NewJeans released "Ditto" on December 19, 2022, as the first single from their first single album, OMG. "Ditto" became the longest-running number-one song on the Circle Digital Chart, topping the chart for thirteen weeks. It was NewJeans' first entry on both the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 82, and the UK Singles Chart, charting at number 95. Later in 2023, "Ditto" won Song of the Year at the MAMA Awards, the Melon Music Awards, the Golden Disc Awards, and the Asia Artist Awards. "Ditto" also currently holds the record for longest-running Perfect all-kill—a feat referring to a song's consistent number-one position on IChart's real-time, daily, and weekly charts—at 655 hours. OMG was released on January 2, 2023. Reviewers commended the album for its retro-style theme. It debuted at number one on the Circle Album Chart, which sold 700,000 copies in its first week of release. It became their first album to sell over one million copies, shortly before New Jeans also reached one million copies sold. OMG was accompanied by a second single of the same name, which went viral on TikTok, peaked at number 74 on the Billboard Hot 100, and became the group's most streamed song on Spotify. "OMG" won the Best Song at the 33rd Seoul Music Awards.
2023–2024: Get Up and Japanese debut
In July 2023, NewJeans held their first sold-out fan meeting, titled Bunnies Camp, at the SK Olympic Handball Gymnasium in Seoul. The group released their second EP, Get Up, on July 21, 2023. Get Up became the group's first entry and number-one on the Billboard 200, making NewJeans the second K-pop girl group to top the chart after Blackpink. The EP reached number two on the Circle Album Chart and sold 1.65 million copies in its first week of release, becoming NewJeans's third consecutive album to sell over one million copies. It was supported by three singles: "Super Shy", "ETA", and "Cool with You". All the singles entered the Billboard Hot 100, making NewJeans the first K-pop female artist to have three simultaneous entries on the chart. "Super Shy" topped the Circle Digital Chart and became their best-performing track on several international charts, which led NewJeans to achieve their first number-one on the Billboard Emerging Artists chart. To promote the EP, NewJeans held live performances in multiple countries and collaborated with global brands and celebrities. In August 2023, they became the first K-pop girl group to perform at Lollapalooza with their first live performance in the United States. That same month, NewJeans performed at the Summer Sonic Festival in Japan.
Throughout 2023, NewJeans released five other singles. In collaboration with Coca-Cola, they released two singles: "Zero" in April and "Be Who You Are (Real Magic)", also featuring Jon Batiste, J.I.D, and Camilo, in May. A remix of "Zero" featuring J.I.D was released in June. NewJeans recorded "Beautiful Restriction" and "Our Night Is More Beautiful Than Your Day" for the soundtracks of the streaming television series A Time Called You (2023) and My Demon (2023–2024), respectively. In October, the group collaborated with Riot Games to release "Gods" as the theme song for the 2023 League of Legends World Championship. In December 2023, NewJeans released their first remix album, NJWMX, comprising songs from New Jeans and OMG remixed by South Korean producers 250 and FRNK. At the end of the year, they became the first K-pop girl group to perform on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.
Several publications named NewJeans among the most prominent music acts of 2023, citing their commercial success and influence in the music, advertising, and fashion industries. They sold 4.39 million album copies, the most-ever for a K-pop female artist in a single year, and broke the Guinness World Record for the fastest K-pop act to reach one billion streams on Spotify. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) ranked NewJeans at number eight on their list of the Global Recording Artist of the Year, making them the second highest-ranked female artist of 2023. Along with Lim Young-woong, the group topped Gallup Korea's Singer of the Year poll. At the MAMA Awards, NewJeans became the first girl group in twelve years to win Artist of the Year and the third girl group in history to receive the award, following 2NE1 in 2010 and Girls' Generation in 2011. After also winning Artist of the Year at the Melon Music Awards, they became the first female artist to win both awards in the same year. At the Billboard Women in Music, they became the first K-pop group to win Group of the Year. NewJeans became the first foreign artist in history to win the Excellent Work Award and be nominated for the Grand Prix with "Ditto" at the Japan Record Awards.
In March 2024, NewJeans announced they would release two singles in May and June. "How Sweet" was released on May 24, along with the B-side track "Bubble Gum". "Supernatural" was released on June 21, along with the B-side track "Right Now". The release of "Supernatural" and "Right Now" marked the group's official Japanese debut, and after its release they began their first cycle of promotional activities in Japan, including a fan meeting, titled Bunnies Camp 2024 Tokyo Dome, at the Tokyo Dome on June 26–27. It was also announced that NewJeans had plans to release an album in the second half of 2024, however the album plans were later halted. On November 16, NewJeans won the Grand Artist Award at the inaugural Korea Grand Music Awards.
2024–present: Conflict with Hybe, "NJZ", and ongoing hiatus
In April 2024, a shareholders' dispute between Hybe Corporation top executives and NewJeans' CEO Min Hee-jin broke out, with Hybe executives claiming that Min had plotted to gain full ownership of the group and Min claiming that the group had suffered unfair competition from Hybe's other girl groups. The dispute led to Min's dismissal as CEO of ADOR on August 27.
Throughout the dispute, NewJeans' members supported Min, including a surprise YouTube livestream on September 11 where they expressed distrust and rebuttal of Hybe's management, detailing issues concerning workplace harassment, leaking of private information, and the deletion of previously released content. They ended the broadcast by giving Hybe chairman Bang Si-Hyuk an ultimatum to reinstate Min by September 25. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times described the NewJeans rebellion as a significant and rare labor dispute in K-pop, highlighting it as one of the highest-profile conflicts in recent years. On September 25, Hybe rejected NewJeans' ultimatum to reinstate Min, citing their principle of separating management from production. However, they confirmed Min would remain NewJeans' producer. Despite the conflict, Min expressed her commitment to NewJeans' future plans, stating she had a plan to overcome the challenges in an interview with TV Asahi.
On October 15, Hanni testified as a reference witness during the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee audit in South Korea, which focused on workplace harassment and artist protection in the entertainment industry. She accused Hybe and senior managers of undermining NewJeans and recounted discrimination faced by her group. ADOR's CEO, Kim Joo-young, also testified and pledged to cooperate with the investigation. The case was later dismissed by the government agency, with the rationale that K-pop groups' members are not classified as workers and are not entitled to labor rights.
On November 13, Yonhap News reported that NewJeans' members sent a letter to ADOR, threatening to terminate their exclusive contract if major breaches were not rectified within 14 days. This move was prompted by a leaked internal document suggesting that Hybe wanted to discard NewJeans and the rejection of their request to reinstate Min Hee-jin as ADOR's CEO. On November 28, the five members announced the termination of their exclusive contract with ADOR due to alleged violations of the contract's clauses, including artist protection. On November 29, the members pledged to pursue activities independently and fight for the group's name rights. ADOR refuted the alleged contract breaches, and stated that the members remain under contract obligations. Attorneys stated that the members had fulfilled legal steps for termination, and that ADOR could file a lawsuit to contest. The Korea Management Federation (KMF) and Korea Entertainment Producers' Association (KEPA) sided with ADOR, arguing that unilateral contract terminations harm industry principles and investments. KEPA called the members' actions "childish", while KMF urged them to retract their claim. Both federations have historically supported management companies in disputes.
On December 5, ADOR petitioned the court to confirm the validity of NewJeans' contract and cautioned others against involvement, expressing their commitment to talk with the group members. In response, the members stated their contracts ended on November 28 and accused ADOR of harassing their collaborators. On December 14, the five NewJeans members created a new Instagram account with the handle "jeanzforfree", separate from the existing official one run by ADOR. Their first post shared details about offering free food and beverages to K-pop fans attending a rally in Yeouido, Seoul, supporting the impeachment of South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol. ADOR has threatened legal actions regarding the new account. On January 13, 2025, ADOR filed an injunction with the Seoul Central District Court to prevent the members from independently signing advertising contracts while their contract dispute remains unresolved.
On February 7, 2025, the members announced a new group name, "NJZ". Additionally, they were announced as headliners for Hong Kong music festival ComplexCon under the new name. Two days before the performance, ADOR was granted the injunction, prohibiting the group from conducting activities independent of the label. On March 23, during their set, the members performed a new song titled "Pit Stop", a series of covers, and announced that they have decided to pause all their activities for the foreseeable future.
