Katseye has only been releasing music since the summer of 2024, yet the global girl group already has a catalog stacked with genre experiments, viral moments, and a couple of genuine Grammy nods. Ranking the best Katseye songs is tricky precisely because the sextet rarely repeats itself — one single leans into hyperpop chaos, the next into Latin-tinged R&B, and the one after that into a soft K-drama ballad. What follows is a rundown of the tracks that best capture why Katseye has become one of the most talked-about acts in pop right now, drawn from official releases, EP cuts, and the soundtrack work that keeps expanding their range.
Gnarly
Few 2025 singles split a fanbase the way “Gnarly” did. Released on April 30, 2025 through Hybe UMG and Geffen Records as the lead single from the EP Beautiful Chaos, the track was built from a 2023 demo by hyperpop artist Alice Longyu Gao, then reworked by Tim Randolph, Pink Slip, “Hitman” Bang, and Slow Rabbit into something closer to a club weapon than a pop song. The production leans on quaking 808s and gritty rave synths, and the tempo sits at a brisk 135 BPM in C minor, which gives the track its frantic, almost overstimulated energy.
What makes “Gnarly” worth revisiting on good headphones is how unapologetically messy it sounds on purpose. Pitchfork called it the most interesting song of the group’s career, and the comparisons to the late SOPHIE’s production style track with the way the mix piles on gritty textures rather than smoothing them out. The song debuted at number 92 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking Katseye’s first entry on that chart, and it later earned a spot in the group’s Grammy-nominated Best New Artist medley performance.
Lyrically, the song is built around the word “gnarly” itself, a deliberately elastic descriptor that member Manon has described as open to interpretation. Whether you land on “this is genius camp” or “this is chaos for chaos’s sake,” the track demands a reaction, which is arguably the entire point.
Gabriela
If “Gnarly” was a sharp left turn, “Gabriela” pulled Katseye back toward something sultrier and more controlled. Released June 20, 2025 as the second single from Beautiful Chaos, the song was written by Andrew Watt, John Ryan, Ali Tamposi, Charli XCX, and Sara Schell, with Watt and Ryan handling production. The track leans into a Latin-tinged R&B groove, written in A minor at 73 BPM (or double-time at 146), and structurally it owes a clear debt to Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” right down to pleading with another woman to leave a man alone.
The arrangement is where this one really earns its spot on the list. Two-thirds of the way through, the song shifts into Spanish for a falsetto bridge sung by Daniela, a first-generation Latina-American member, marking the group’s first-ever Spanish-language verse. It is a small moment that does a lot of emotional lifting, and it pairs with one of the year’s most talked-about videos: a telenovela-styled visual directed by Andrew Thomas Huang featuring Jessica Alba as a retiring CEO pitting the members against each other for her empire.
Commercially, “Gabriela” became Katseye’s biggest hit to date, peaking at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 and earning the group a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. A remix with Puerto Rican rapper Young Miko followed that August, extending the song’s shelf life even further. Played in the car with the windows down, the groove and the guitar line do most of the convincing — this is the rare girl-group single that actually sounds like it was written for adults.
Touch
“Touch” remains the song most people point to when they explain why Katseye broke through. Released July 26, 2024 as the second single from the debut EP SIS (Soft Is Strong), it is a melodic drum-and-bass-leaning R&B track that deliberately stripped back the bigger, brassier sound of the group’s first single, “Debut,” in favor of something that let the members’ vocals breathe. Production and songwriting credits trace back to HYBE chairman “Hitman” Bang, Ryan Tedder, and Justin Tranter, a pairing of K-pop and Western pop pedigree that defines a lot of Katseye’s sound.
What pushed “Touch” from a solid single into a cultural moment was TikTok. The choreography went viral as a dance challenge in September 2024, months after release, and the song kept climbing as a result — reaching the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 and the Philippines Hot 100, plus entries on Canadian, Taiwanese, and Malaysian charts. Listening back now, the appeal is obvious: the verses are airy and a little melancholic, built around the idea of a partner who is emotionally unreachable, and the chorus opens up just enough to feel like release without tipping into bombast.
It is also a useful reminder of how much mixing and mastering choices shape a song’s afterlife. The original studio mix is fairly restrained, almost understated next to “Gnarly” or “Pinky Up,” but that restraint is exactly what made it loop endlessly well on short-form video, where a song needs to hook a listener inside two or three seconds.
Internet Girl
Katseye opened 2026 with “Internet Girl,” a standalone single released January 2, 2026 through Hybe UMG and Geffen Records. Produced by Mattman & Robin alongside Justin Tranter and Shawn Wasabi, the track had already built an audience before its studio release — it was first performed live on November 15, 2025, at the opening night of the Beautiful Chaos Tour in Minneapolis, and clips from that show spread fast enough that fans were requesting the studio version for weeks.
Thematically, this is Katseye at their most self-aware. The song leans into the absurdity of being hyper-visible online, mixing irony with genuine anxiety about how identity gets performed for an audience that never logs off. Lines about getting your screen “so hot” you should take a screenshot read as both a flex and a critique, and that doubled meaning is what makes the song stick rather than just sounding like a TikTok-bait novelty.
Chart-wise, “Internet Girl” gave the group their highest UK debut to that point, landing at number 24 on the Official Singles Chart, and it entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 29. The accompanying visualizer leaned hard into early-internet nostalgia — old error screens, meme references, glitchy UI — which fit the song’s themes far better than a conventional music video would have. On headphones, the production has a slightly compressed, digital sheen to it that mirrors the lyrics almost too literally, in the best way.
Pinky Up
The most recent entry on this list is also one of the most divisive. “Pinky Up” arrived April 9, 2026 as the lead single from the group’s third EP, Wild, written by David Wilson, Justin Tranter, Magsy, Sorana, and Skyler Stonestreet, and produced by “Hitman” Bang, Dwilly, and Frants. Sonically it continues the hyperpop and techno-pop direction “Gnarly” opened up, layering EDM textures and rave elements over a sample pulled from German DJ Da Hool’s “Meet Her at the Love Parade.”
This single also marks a notable shift for the group: it is Katseye’s first release without member Manon Bannerman, who began a hiatus that February, making the accompanying video and choreography the group’s first as a five-piece. Performed first at Coachella, then promoted across South Korean music shows including M Countdown and Inkigayo, the song’s lyrics lean into a carefree, slightly nihilistic energy — references to the world ending, raising a pinky in a wink at old etiquette, and choosing hedonism over worry.
Commercially, the track became the group’s highest UK chart entry yet, debuting at number 14 on the Official Singles Chart, and it later helped the group take home New Artist of the Year at the 2026 American Music Awards. Critically, reception has been mixed — some reviewers called it short and trend-chasing — but the production’s rave-inspired drops are genuinely effective in a live setting, which a quick look at the Coachella and AMA performance clips will confirm.
My Way
Tucked into the back half of SIS (Soft Is Strong), “My Way” gets overshadowed by its higher-charting EP-mates, but it deserves more attention than it gets. Released as part of the EP on August 16, 2024, the track belongs to a stretch of the project that Apple Music’s own review singled out for its more confessional, textured songwriting compared to the brighter pre-release singles. Where “Debut” and “Touch” are extroverted, “My Way” pulls inward.
The EP as a whole drew on an unusually deep production bench — Ryan Tedder, Justin Tranter, Cashmere Cat, Blake Slatkin, Omer Fedi, and “Hitman” Bang all contributed across its five tracks — and “My Way” benefits from that pop craftsmanship even without the single-cycle promotion. It functions as a quieter statement of independence, the kind of mid-tempo track that lets the group’s vocal blend do more of the storytelling than the lyrics alone.
For listeners who only know Katseye through the viral singles, “My Way” is a good entry point into understanding the group’s range before the hyperpop pivot. It is less flashy, but it shows a vocal group that can hold a song together without leaning on a gimmick.
Gameboy
Released June 27, 2025 alongside the rest of Beautiful Chaos, “Gameboy” is the EP’s most straightforwardly catchy moment. Produced by KillaGraham with vocal production from Bart Schoudel, and written by Jacob Kasher Hindlin, Celine Polenghi, and Morgan Jackson, the song wraps a breakup narrative in 8-bit sound effects and a moombahton-adjacent rhythm that nods to retro gaming without leaning on it as a gimmick.
Lyrically, the conceit is simple but well executed: a partner who treated the relationship like a disposable game gets compared, fittingly, to a Game Boy. “You’re just a Gameboy, I ain’t tryna play, boy” works as both a kiss-off and an earworm, and the bridge — delivered by Manon — adds a sharper, almost confrontational edge before the chorus resets. Pitchfork’s review of the EP was lukewarm on the song overall but still flagged it as the closest thing on Beautiful Chaos to the “hook song” formula that made “Touch” work so well.
In a live setting, “Gameboy” tends to hit harder than it does on a first studio listen, mostly because the 8-bit flourishes translate well to a big PA system and the chorus is built for crowd participation. It is the kind of song that rewards a second listen once the chorus has had time to set in.
Time Lapse
Katseye’s first foray into Korean drama soundtrack work came with “Time Lapse,” released July 6, 2025 as part of GOOD BOY (Original Television Soundtrack), Pt. 6, featuring singer JUNNY. Written and produced by music director Heo Seong-jin alongside Erik Lidbom and Gustav Mared, the song was created for the JTBC drama Good Boy, scoring the romance between leads Park Bo-gum and Kim So-hyun.
Two versions exist — a warmer, medium-tempo R&B arrangement and a brighter version built around urban guitar tones — and both lean into a softer, more vulnerable side of the group than their English-language singles tend to show. JUNNY’s smooth, R&B-rooted vocal pairs well against the group’s brighter pop delivery, and the track’s “like a time lapse, time lapse” hook is simple enough to land in a foreign-language drama context without losing its emotional weight in translation.
For listeners who associate Katseye purely with hyperpop chaos or TikTok dance trends, “Time Lapse” is a genuinely useful corrective. It shows a group capable of restraint, leaning on warm synth pads and brass-tinged production instead of 808s and rave stabs, and members like Yoonchae and Lara get moments to shine vocally that their English-language discography rarely affords them.
M.I.A (VALORANT Game Changers Version)
Originally a track from Beautiful Chaos, “M.I.A” got an unexpected second life in November 2025 when Riot Games tapped Katseye to reimagine it as the official anthem for the 2025 VALORANT Game Changers Championship finals in Seoul. The reworked version, released November 11, 2025 and paired with an animated video titled “GO OFF,” kept the song’s original themes of confidence and self-possession while retooling the production to suit a cinematic esports rollout.
The collaboration carries more weight than a typical brand tie-in because member Megan is an outspoken gamer who has talked openly about wanting a Valorant partnership before one materialized. That authenticity comes through in how the song was repositioned — not just licensed out, but actively reframed around the idea of showing up as your best self under pressure, which lines up neatly with Game Changers’ mission of elevating women and marginalized genders in esports.
Musically, the Game Changers version retains the same gaming-adjacent energy as the EP cut but tightens the mix for a more anthemic, arena-ready feel. It is a clever example of how a song with strong bones can be recontextualized for an entirely different audience without losing what made it work in the first place.
Monster High Fright Song
Not every entry on a best-of list needs to be a chart hit, and “Monster High Fright Song” earns its place here on novelty and craft rather than streaming numbers. Released July 18, 2025 through Mattel and HYBE x Geffen as a modernized cover of the franchise’s original 2010 theme, the track was produced by Count Baldor with songwriting from Michael Kotch and Paul Robb, the latter a veteran of the original Monster High sound.
The production updates the bones of the original with electropop and dance-pop textures while keeping the call-and-response structure that made the franchise’s theme instantly memorable to an entire generation. Beyond the soundtrack cut, Katseye leaned into the brand’s mythology by tying each member’s “monster” persona to folklore from their own cultural background — Yoonchae as a white tiger from Korean legend, Sophia as a Filipino Manananggal, Lara as a South Asian Rakshasa — a detail that turned a fairly straightforward licensing deal into something more personal.
It will never compete with “Gabriela” for chart position, but it is a fun reminder that Katseye’s appeal extends well past traditional pop releases, and the willingness to have fun with a kids’ franchise without losing their own identity says something about the group’s range.
Curious how any of these tracks actually sound on different setups? Browsing through a headphone comparison can make a real difference before committing to a pair built for catching every layer in a mix this dense, and for anyone who listens mostly on the move, a side-by-side earbuds comparison is worth a look too. For more rankings and song breakdowns like this one, the songs section has plenty to dig through.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Katseye’s most successful song so far?
“Gabriela” holds that title as of mid-2026, peaking at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching number 16 on the Billboard Global 200, and earning a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance.
Why did “Gnarly” get such a mixed reaction?
The song marked a sharp stylistic departure from Katseye’s earlier, more conventional pop sound, leaning into hyperpop production and intentionally repetitive, slang-heavy lyrics. Some listeners found it refreshing and experimental, while others felt the songwriting was too loose, which kept the conversation around the song going for months.
Did Katseye lose a member?
Member Manon Bannerman began a temporary hiatus announced in February 2026 for personal reasons. The group has continued performing and releasing music as a five-piece since then, starting with the single “Pinky Up.”
Is Katseye considered a K-pop group?
Katseye is usually described as a global girl group rather than a strict K-pop act. The group was formed through a HYBE and Geffen Records audition program and trains under K-pop-style systems, but most of its music is in English and draws heavily on Western pop, R&B, and hyperpop influences.
What is the Beautiful Chaos EP about?
Beautiful Chaos is Katseye’s second EP, released June 27, 2025, and it leans into contrasts — soft versus aggressive production, vulnerability versus bravado — across tracks like “Gnarly,” “Gabriela,” and “Gameboy.” It debuted in the top five of the Billboard 200, the group’s highest-charting release at the time.