KATSEYE’s new single “Gabriela” debuted at No. 94 on the “Billboard” Hot 100 and climbed to a new peak of No. 87 the following week. The song’s been doing even better on global charts, with its runaway international appeal propelling it to No. 29 on the Global 200 and No. 23 on the Global Excl. US chart. On top of that, the group’s earlier single “Gnarly” also hit No. 96 on the Hot 100 and No. 53 on the Global 200. There’s no longer anything surprising about seeing K-pop show up on the big charts, but KATSEYE’s accomplishment is still impressive considering they’re focused on the US market and only debuted a year ago.

And this is more than just a metaphorical milestone for a group that’s new to the world and to the charts. That’s because “Gabriela” stands at the intersection of two of the most dynamic forces in the 21st-century American music landscape—K-pop, with its highly sophisticated global approach, and Latin music, which has rapidly burst into the mainstream.

KATSEYE is more than just a fruit of their culture—they represent what happens when you carry the very essence of what makes the K-pop system so successful over to the US market. They went through the whole process of training for a girl group scouted, developed, and introduced from the US to the world from start to finish, overcoming the inevitable language and cultural barriers along the way. But it was clear from the start that the process wasn’t one of mere replication or imitation. Though “The Debut: Dream Academy” followed a tried-and-true reality show format, it was adapted for the US with careful consideration toward cultural diversity, giving the candidates long-term mental health support and adjusting guidelines as they went.

You can see the result of this approach in two notable places. First, up to and including the release of “Gnarly,” KATSEYE proved that the K-pop approach to developing new groups, coupled with its comprehensive performance-driven promotional style and knack for cultivating a fan base, could work just as effectively in the US. Second, “Gabriela” showed that this system can even work in tandem with the unique characteristics of a specific culture—in this case, Latin culture. In other words, KATSEYE has the potential to appeal to a wide and varied global audience through the cultural diversity of the group members themselves. “Gabriela” is just the first successful example of this, opening the door to them leveraging the other girls’ cultural backgrounds in the future.

As to why the group went with Latin culture first, look no further than the rise of Latin music in the US. It’s more than a fashionable genre—it’s an outright phenomenon, demonstrating its influence on the economy and American society as a whole in line with demographics and cultural shifts. According to a 2024 report by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the US Latin music market saw a record-breaking $1.4 billion in sales. This marks the ninth consecutive year that Latin music has outpaced growth of the US music industry as a whole, now accounting for an 8.1% share of the total. Economic success like that underscores the fact that Latin music is no niche but a major driving force in the American music industry.

Driving the Latin music explosion is streaming, where it makes a staggering 98% of its revenue. Streaming options that include ads, like YouTube and Spotify’s free tier, make up around 25% of that, far surpassing the average 10% across the US market as a whole and indicating that Latin music is reaching a wide audience through online services. And this is where Latin music and K-pop, both of which have surged onto the international stage in recent years, share common ground.

But there’s far more behind Latin music’s influence today than mere economics. Latin music both reflects and shapes the identity and cultural pride of the Hispanic community in the US. In many cases, music plays a part in connecting immigrant communities and their descendants to their roots. It stands to reason, then, that the visible success of Latin music in the mainstream is closely tied to the community’s growing population and increasing influence. Naturally, the worldwide success that artists like Bad Bunny and J Balvin have achieved instills within the community a profound sense of pride and solidarity. In short, Latin music is much more than mere entertainment—it explores complex, diverse identities, speaks to social issues, and acts as a unifying force.

K-pop has a long, storied history of interactions with Latin music. On the most surface level, K-pop’s borrowed from it in an aesthetic sense, incorporating influences like Spanish guitar, Habanera rhythms, and the occasional Spanish lyrics for effect. Where K-pop dance moves and live performances are concerned, we’ve also seen the incorporation of genres like reggaeton. On a deeper level, K-pop’s global status has enabled opportunities for direct exchanges between the two worlds, including collaborations with Latin artists and songs recorded in Spanish aimed specifically at Spanish-speaking fans. But there’s something fundamentally different about what “Gabriela” is doing. Rather than a Korean group simply adding Latin flair to their music, KATSEYE’s single centers on one of their group member’s Latin heritage and builds its theme around that.

Most notably, the music video for the song pulls off its cultural bridging by specifically paying homage to a Spanish-language TV drama genre, the telenovela. The video demonstrates a deep understanding and respect for its source material, faithfully recreating such defining characteristics as the over-the-top acting, melodramatic twists, and vibrant visuals. American member Daniela, with her Cuban and Venezuelan heritage, steps up as the first in the group to perform a verse entirely in Spanish. And beyond showing she’s fluent in the language, it also places her culture and heritage at the very center of the music. Her involvement shows the song isn’t mere competent mimicry by an outsider. Consequently, “Gabriela” and KATSEYE as a whole have a direct connection to Latin culture and that massive market.

Ultimately, the success of “Gabriela” demonstrates the potential for a groundbreaking new model within the US music industry. K-pop has the power to take its approach and combine it with the cultures of places beyond Korea or the rest of Asia—even on the other side of the globe—to have an even greater impact on mainstream music there. “Gabriela” serves as an important case study for how K-pop can evolve by merging with different cultures from around the world, and on top of that, it provides an invaluable blueprint for the future trajectory of global pop music in an increasingly diverse world. For a long time, music from outside North America and Europe was seen by English-speaking audiences as something of a curiosity to poke around in. It had a history of being influenced by Western pop and taking on a life of its own on its home turf, or else being absorbed into Western pop as just another element of it. But KATSEYE stands in contrast to all of that. For them, they put K-pop to practical use as the wellspring from which all other ideas and sounds flow equally. The result is something fully original that then extends its reach back into the global world of music. We’re truly witnessing a pivotal moment of transformation.