It’s heartbreaking when your favorite group breaks up. To NewJeans fans, a disbandment would have been better than the ongoing controversy that’s been occurring lately. NewJeans was originally a five member K-pop girl group consisting of Hanni, Danielle, Minji, Haerin, and Hyien under the company ADOR. They have been facing legal drama with them since around last year.
Everything started in April 2025, when ADOR announced that the former CEO of the company, Min HeeJin, was to be removed from her position. At the time, she stated many accusations claiming the recently debuted group ILLIT was copying NewJeans’ concept which led into a battle between her and the parent company, HYBE. Later, NewJeans responded with a surprise livestream, demanding to return her. The group and Min Heejin are seen to be very fond of each other which most likely led to the whole situation happening. After announcing them, fans from both groups became part of a huge fight.
Altogether, these accusations were very unnecessary and inaccurate. ILLIT’s concept was not copying NewJeans since their concept was more dreamcore while NewJeans was similar to Y2K. In this case, it was not their fault, since K-pop companies choose their group’s concepts. Unfortunately, it didn’t end there when fans targeted other groups like KIIIKIII and Hearts2Hearts for the exact same reasons.
From March 23rd-24th, 2025, NewJeans rebranded themselves as NJZ, and performed their debut song, “Pit Stop” in Hong Kong. Fans were very excited for their rebrand and to support them in any way. I was surprised when I found out about it, but I was intrigued by the new release. But the newfound hype was brought to a halt in October, when a court case ruled that NewJeans was to return to ADOR and couldn’t terminate their contracts until 2029, effectively shutting down their new NJZ identity. Fans had negative reactions, with some upset they lost the case against ADOR and others claiming NewJeans will continue to cause drama between other HYBE groups. I found it slightly disappointing that NewJeans had to return to ADOR. It would probably be a reasonable idea to keep NewJeans away from groups like ILLIT specifically after all the drama surrounding them.
On December 29th, one of the members, Danielle, was removed from the group by ADOR. In their statement, ADOR noted, ‘…we determined it would be difficult [for her] to continue as a NewJeans member and ADOR artist…’ after she broke her contract with them by participating in unapproved independent activities. Danielle, one of her family members, and Min HeeJin were each sued for around $30 million. Fans were devastated and demanded ADOR to return Danielle, and even asking YouTubers like Mr. Beast to buy the parent company HYBE. Mr. Beast eventually responded on X by saying, “What do I need to do [in order to buy HYBE]?”. This has led fans to be hopeful, but I personally don’t think he’ll actually do it, and even if he did, buying such a big company will most likely be very complicated. Although $30 million is a lot of money and as upsetting as it is, Danielle did break her contract so it technically is her fault.
After all the drama, fans are now expressing mixed opinions towards NewJeans, some supporting them while others are upset about the controversies. I can’t say that I support their actions, but I hope for the best for all the members. Being one of the first groups that got me into K-pop, all five members and their older songs will always be iconic to me.
