Turns Out HYBE Didn’t Isolate NewJeans—It Was Min Hee Jin’s Decision

After the internal conflict between the entertainment conglomerate HYBE and NewJeans‘ “mom” Min Hee Jin, every move by the both sides easily gain attention. On July 9th, HYBE and the Grammy Museum announced a special exhibition collaboration. Here, items representing the musical journey of artists under the conglomerate will be displayed.

Every HYBE artist is participating, including BTS, SEVENTEEN, ILLIT, LE SSERAFIM, TXT, etc. The only group absent is NewJeans. This has sparked speculation that “NewJeans is being abandoned by HYBE.” The controversy grew further when NewJeans was also the only group not participating in the Weverse Con concert in June. NewJeans’ fandom is outraged, continuously demanding justice for their idols on various platforms.

However, on July 15th, Korean media revealed the opposite truth. Xports News reported that the Grammy Museum had sent a request to ADOR for NewJeans to appear at the “HYBE Exhibition” back in March. But ADOR refused at that time, stating that NewJeans would only have a small part in the entire HYBE exhibition.

An official stated that the organizers sincerely invited them, specifying that NewJeans’ section would be placed at the very entrance for visitors to see first. HYBE also communicated this invitation to ADOR, expressing their desire for NewJeans to participate. Therefore, NewJeans’ absence from the conglomerate’s exhibition is not due to being sidelined or abandoned, but because their management label declined the invitation.

In response to this information, an ADOR representative shared with Sports World: “Not participating in HYBE’s exhibition is not due to non-cooperation. It is because we felt it did not fully represent what NewJeans wanted to showcase.”

“There are some speculations that the Grammy Museum promised a ‘good spot’ for NewJeans. But in reality, that spot lacked walls to display items, and the initial information provided by HYBE was only a preliminary sketch, with some unclear points and not including several groups,” the ADOR representative explained.

Despite the explanation, NewJeans and ADOR still face negative reactions from netizens. This is because, before knowing the truth about NewJeans’ absence from the HYBE exhibition, the group’s fandom aggressively “attacked” the conglomerate with serious accusations like neglecting artists and discrimination.

But when it was revealed that the decision was made by ADOR and Min Hee Jin, the public began to see the “center ambition” of NewJeans. Netizens pointed out that Min Hee Jin wanted to be the main character, “shining alone,” and thus refused to appear with other groups from the same company. This seems like an attempt to overshadow even BTS. Once again, BTS is dragged into the controversy surrounding NewJeans.