At first glance the five girls of Global Icon (GI), with their rainbow colored boy-cut hair and dark attire, may come off as tough and intimidating, but members Ha Yun, One Ket, Eun Ji, A I and A Ram assure that it is only in keeping with their group’s tomboy image.

“Honestly, the president of our agency really wanted to form a boy band,” Ha Yun explained. “It was later decided that we would train and debut with the concept of being a boyish girl group.”

On April 4 GI released its debut single “Beatles,” an upbeat, hip-hop dance track with masculine choreography to match the boyish concept. The title “Beatles” is a spin-off term of a Korean expression for “enjoy the beat.”

Although the young women appear tough while performing, they are feminine and playful in real life. It’s only when they hit the stage that their alter egos come to life and it’s a complete 180-degree change. 

Girl group Global Icon. (Simtong Entertainment)

“Some people said that when they saw our music video, we looked like tough girls who want to go around hitting people,” One Ket said laughing.

“It’s not true at all. But then again, I take it as a compliment because that meant that we were pulling off our boyish image well,” said A I.

In keeping with its group name of wanting to become international stars, GI not only released its debut single “Beatles” onto local music sites, but the song was also released worldwide on iTunes in more than 100 countries.

“When people listen to the song, I want them to just be addicted to the melody,” said A Ram. “The chorus is simple and catchy and I hope people just want to start dancing when they hear it.”

It has been only a month and a half since the girls introduced themselves to the K-pop scene and the members shared some of the difficulties as well as the battles they faced in preparation for their debut.

“Most of us have very girly personalities,” said rapper One Ket. “But in order to be a part of the group, we all had to cut our hair short and really had to de-program our girlish tendencies ― from the style of dancing, right down to simple hand gestures to make ourselves look tougher.”

“For me, I had no idea making a music video would be so tiring and demanding. We couldn’t sleep for two days,” A Ram recalled with the look of exhaustion on her face. “There’s a scene in the music video where I am eating a bowl of cereal, but when the cameras were off, I actually fell asleep with my face in the bowl.”

“Other than practices, we don’t have time for any hobbies. It’s sad, but because of that we get to spend a lot of time together as a group,” said Eun Ji.

The girls have only known each for about three years, but interact with one another as if they’re all longtime childhood friends. After living and training over the past few years, the members have established a close-knit family and expressed their hopes of continuing to maintain their close relationship long into the future.

“We are together 24 hours a day,” said A I. “We don’t have to say anything; we just look at each other and know what we’re thinking.”

“One of my goals, aside from spreading our names out to the public, is to one day make enough money so that I can buy a building so that we can all live together,” said Ha Yun. “Even in the future when we’re all married I want us to all be together.”

“Our husbands can all live together too,” A Ram quickly replied and the girls all burst into laughter.

The members of GI are currently preparing for their follow-up single, which is scheduled to be unveiled sometime in July.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)