In the classic teen movie trope, a beautiful new girl in town from the countryside soon becomes the queen of the school with her natural looks and charms that turn the urban trend upside down. Girl group KiiiKiii is that new girl ready to become the queen of the K-pop school.

Girl group KiiiKiii made its official debut on Monday with first EP "Uncut Gem" as Starship Entertainment's first new girl group in three years since IVE. In their first nerve-wracking meeting with reporters during a showcase held on Monday afternoon, members Jiyu, Leesol, Sui, Haum and Kya highlighted the group’s concept and goal as the new girls in town.


“We work great as a team but each of us shine in our own way, which is what makes us strong altogether,” Jiyu said. “We really want to emphasize our natural charms and also make people smile.”

The name KiiiKiii is a play-on-word in both Korean and English. While in Korean, it’s an onomatopoeia of a giggling sound often described as "kiki" in Korean, it’s also symbolic of the word "key" in English, meaning that the group will keep on finding the key to life’s answers with a smile on their face.

“The name of the team is meant to give a friendly image to everyone who hears it,” said Sui. “We want to show various sides of ourselves to fans and also give them laughter and happiness.”

“Our charm is that of an untamed one,” Haum said. “Rather than conforming ourselves to a given role, we want to show our very own colors unique to us only.”

The title “Uncut Gem” is quite self-explanatory: the members are precious stones that have not been artificially cut into a certain shape yet. The debut EP carries six tracks including pre-debut lead track "I Do Me" along with B-side tracks "Debut Song," "Groundwork," "There They Go," "BTG" and "One Off."

“I Do Me” was released on Feb. 24 to introduce the group’s five members and overall laid-back teenage theme that has been dominant in K-pop ever since girl group NewJeans’ debut in 2022, continued with girl groups Fifty Fifty, ILLIT, Rescene and Hearts2Hearts. The group also took the self-approval idea of IVE, but with stronger vocals and a nature-friendly look as opposed to the urban chic that IVE went for.

The song’s music video has garnered over 10 million views on YouTube, after becoming the No. 1 trending video after its release.

“We really didn’t expect to receive this much love so early,” Jiyu said. “We are so grateful for everything. We will really try to live up to all the attention and love that we have been given by developing ourselves.”

When asked to name a role model, the members stressed their urge to spread their name only as KiiiKiii rather than following in other group’s steps.

“Every artist is a role model for us and we respect every one of them,” Leesol said. “We are inspired by every performance of senior groups but we want to establish our own color and mood.”

KiiiKiii will meet with fans for the first time in a showcase at 8 p.m. The members will perform “I Do Me” along with other tracks from the album and share other stories during the event. The showcase will be livestreamed on KiiiKiii’s YouTube channel.

“I remember one fan who called us the ‘organic girls,’ and I love that name so much,” Kya said. “We really want to spread our name to a lot of people. We would love to travel around the world and perform in various places.”

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]