International woman group XG has been exhausting at work making ready for an enormous second half of 2024: Their new single, “Woke Up,” drops at present (Might 21) after they kicked off their first world tour on Saturday.
“[The tour] is one thing that we’ve been trying ahead to ever since our debut,” the group’s chief, Jurin, informed The Hollywood Reporter via a translator simply days earlier than their first present.
The seven-piece hip-hop and R&B-inspired group — made up of members Jurin, Chisa, Hinata, Harvey, Juria, Maya and Cocona — debuted in 2022 with the one “Tippy Toes,” that includes a daring prediction of their future as belted by Chisa: “Perceive that we didn’t come to play, babe. Right here to dominate.”
True to these lyrics, XG (quick for “Xtraordinary Ladies”) has been on a meteoric rise since then. The group hails from international leisure firm XGALX, which was initially created as a world artist challenge beneath Japanese leisure conglomerate Avex in 2017.
A world viewers has been the group’s focus from the beginning. XG’s discography is completely in English. They’ve beforehand promoted inside the Ok-Pop system, attending and acting at Korean weekly music exhibits (suppose MTV’s TRL, that includes performances pre-recorded in entrance of stay audiences and the top-charting track awarded stay on-air). The group has already carried out at music festivals in a number of completely different international locations together with the U.S., Australia and Singapore.
XG performs at Billboard Presents The Stage throughout SXSW Sydney on October 20, 2023 in Sydney, Australia.
Picture by Brendon Thorne/Getty Pictures for SXSW Sydney
Following their debut single, XG and their producers have continued to experiment with new sounds. Within the group’s third single album, that includes songs “Left Proper” and “Capturing Star,” XG channeled the breezy, addicting sound of Y2K R&B woman teams, including what has change into a signature futuristic science-fiction really feel with their music movies.
Their subsequent launch NEW DNA, the group’s first EP, seamlessly showcased the various sides of XG with the Y2K-reminiscent summer season single “New Dance” and the futuristic hip-hop heavy “GRL GVNG,” which references the “feminine empire” that XG is making an attempt to create.
With their new single “Woke Up,” XG are persevering with their artistic evolution. The track marks the group’s first all-rap single, which XGALX has described as “a monitor with 808 bass infused with sounds distinctive to East Asia.”
As Maya places it, all seven members of the group are portraying a special character within the single and within the music video, and every have their very own foremost character second. “You’ll be able to see within the music video, as effectively,” she says. “We actually really feel like every of us suited the characters rather well.”
When requested about what they have been most excited for his or her followers, collectively often known as Alphaz, to see within the music video, Maya notes the thrill round her fellow members’ new appears. A number of of the group members have new hair colours and kinds, a certain signal to followers {that a} new chapter within the group’s story was underway. In addition they expressed their pleasure for followers to see all of the little particulars of the music video, together with the costumes and choreography.
On high of their many actions, the group lately collaborated with Riot Video games to sing the official hype track for the Valorant Champions Tour Pacific 2024, a aggressive e-sports match for the developer’s wildly common Valorant online game. The track “Undefeated,” launched in April, suits proper in with XG’s discography, delivering a message of throwing away one’s fears and rising victorious.
“It was match,” Juria stated of the collaboration, noting that she felt the message of the track was “actually, actually sturdy.”
Within the midst of single releases and collaborations, XG has additionally been making ready for his or her first world tour. The tour kicked off on Saturday and Sunday with two nights in Osaka, Japan. The group then heads to Yokohama, Japan for 2 exhibits on Might 25 and 26. From there, the group will tour numerous cities throughout Asia earlier than heading to america in October and Europe in November, though precise particulars have but to be introduced.
XG has been diligent in making ready for this subsequent step. “It was an enormous objective for us, so after we first heard we have been going to go on a world tour, we have been simply so, so comfortable,” Jurin stated.
“We’re rehearsing proper now to organize, from morning to nighttime,” she continued. The 21-year-old famous that the group is placing within the exhausting work and that she thinks the ultimate outcome will “simply knock the socks off of all of the Alphaz on the market.”
With a variety of songs, one would assume that the members may need completely different songs they’re excited to tackle the tour. In what is probably a testomony to their synergy as a bunch, after a energetic and endearing dialogue with each other, all seven members selected one track they’re most excited to carry out on tour, answering in unison: “Left Proper.”
Unsurprisingly, the group is happy to see their followers from all over the world on the upcoming tour. “The Alphaz are an enormous motivation for lots of what we do,” Jurin defined. “Simply with the ability to ship the music that we make, to them, is a large a part of XG.”
