Lara Raj has waited a while to hear her own writing on a Katseye single. “It means a lot to have something like that to piece of me out in the world, finally. And it’s been a long time coming, so I’m very grateful,” she said in an interview filmed in Los Angeles on October 18, the day the group performed at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. The clip, in which she stands with bandmates Daniela Avanzini, Megan Skiendiel and Yoonchae, has been circulating again this week.
The song she means is “Unloveu,” which reached streaming services on October 13 in the US (9 a.m. on October 14 in Seoul). Raj wrote it with Ross Golan, whose credits include Maroon 5 and Justin Bieber, and Amy Allen, the Grammy-winning writer behind several Sabrina Carpenter hits. Until then it had been a bonus track on the limited Target edition of Wild, the group’s third EP.
A tour song first, a single second
The unusual part is the order. “Unloveu” was in the set when the Wildworld Tour opened at Dublin’s 3Arena on September 1, and fan-filmed footage of Raj’s solo spot and the song from London’s O2 on September 4 has been on YouTube for weeks. By the time it went to streaming, the song had been performed live for six weeks, across nine European arena dates, before most listeners could replay it at home. The release landed on the same date as the first North American show, at Miami’s Kaseya Center.
That sequence explains the reaction Raj was answering. “I’m grateful that the fans get to hear a new side of all the girls’ voices,” she said. “I think that’s what makes me the most proud, for sure.” The track is a deliberate change of pace. Where Wild leans on dance-floor singles such as “Animal” and “Hootie Frutti,” “Unloveu” is a slow breakup song built on close harmonies and a repeated title phrase, about the point where a person finally lets go. Its black-and-white visualizer, directed by Jeff Rattanong and posted on the HYBE LABELS channel, ends on an empty chair after the members walk away one by one.
Where Katseye stands in October
The single arrives late in a big year. Wild opened at No. 1 on the US albums chart dated August 29, the group’s first chart-topping release, and was still at No. 39 in its eighth week. “Animal” had spent 11 weeks on the Hot 100 by mid-October and climbed to a new high of No. 12 on the pop radio chart. “Unloveu” itself has not entered the main charts in the US or UK; its best showing so far is No. 33 on New Zealand’s Hot Singles chart.
The tour is also being played by four members, not six. Manon Bannerman has been on an announced hiatus since February, and Sophia Laforteza, who stepped back in August, is due to return in January 2027 and will miss the rest of the run. Skiendiel said the crowds are what keep it going. “Being able to look into the crowd and see how far we’ve come as Katseye is just so, it feels so good and we could not be more grateful,” she said, adding that the members “get to like walk around during the show” to meet fans up close.
For context on the scale: the group came out of the 2023 competition series Dream Academy, a HYBE and Geffen Records project that drew more than 120,000 applicants, and debuted in June 2024. Two years and four months later, every date of its first arena tour has sold out.
What comes next
With the Elmont shows on October 24 and 25 done, 15 of the tour’s 31 dates have been played, leaving 16. The next stop is Boston’s TD Garden on Wednesday, October 28, followed by Montreal’s Bell Centre on October 30. The tour ends with two nights at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City on November 27 and 28, and a compilation LP, Katseye: The Dance Breaks, is scheduled for November 27, the same day.
Further reading
Image: the CwE, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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