On September 11, NewJeans suddenly opened a YouTube channel and went on live with all members. In the live, the girl group expressed their support for the former CEO of their agency, Min Hee-jin, at the same time discussed how HYBE is “dishonest and wrong” and expressed worries for their future.
The live video was deleted soon after it ended, suggesting that NewJeans’ decision to go on live was not allowed or authorized by HYBE.
So, what drove the girl group to make such a drastic move?
1. Worries about the future
In the live, Hanni exposed the blatant disregard that HYBE has for the girl group following the HYBE – Min Hee-jin conflict, claiming that HYBE even pressured other artists to ignore NewJeans.
In particular, when Hanni went to the 4th floor of HYBE headquarters to go to the company’s salon, she greeted a group of artists and their manager, only to later hear the manager telling the other artists, “Ignore that girl”.
Additionally, when Hanni told the new representative of ADOR about this event, she was dismissed and accused of lying. This means that NewJeans is facing harsh treatment under HYBE, and the fact that the girl group and the members’ parents previously made statements in defense of Min Hee-jin, effectively making their stance against HYBE, may worsen the situation.
With all these, it is likely that NewJeans will suffer from heavier mistreatments, and so the video is their attempt to voice these worries before being silenced in the future.
2. Reliance on Min Hee-jin
Alongside their worries, NewJeans also revealed the importance of Min Hee-jin and their closeness to the former ADOR CEO, suggesting a heavy level of reliance.
In particular, NewJeans members are known to have been close to Min Hee-jin to the point of considering her as a close family member instead of just having a professional relationship, so the removal of Min Hee-jin from HYBE likely have shocked the members, causing the group to believe they no longer have a “protector” against HYBE.
On top of that, NewJeans believe that Min Hee-jin is behind the group’s identities, so the members are afraid that they will lose the group’s colors and popularity in the future.
The departure of Min Hee-jin also suggested that other staff members that previously worked with the group may also be removed unprompted, causing justified panic, hence the rushed live stream.
3. Timing
NewJeans members went on live just one day before HYBE’s shareholder meeting, likely to inform shareholders about their wishes and circumstances and in hopes that shareholders will put pressure against the conglomerate.
As NewJeans have immense commercial power, the girl group’s speech may have a severe effect on HYBE’s stock price, pushing shareholders to take action heeding to their demands.
As new artists under HYBE, NewJeans probably know that their demands won’t be heard without public and shareholders’ pressure, and so decided to voice their frustration and feelings to the world to make a bigger impact.
Conclusion
Overall, while HYBE is unlikely to retract its decision to remove Min Hee-jin from ADOR, NewJeans’ live at least shed light on matters such as mistreatment, thus informing fans and the public of possible future wrongdoings.
Should anything unfavorable happen to the girl group (such as lack of investment, no comebacks, social media ban, and so on), the public and fans will at least be able to get the bigger picture behind NewJeans’ circumstances and take measures against it.
On the other hand, NewJeans’ fate will also depend on the results of HYBE’s shareholder meeting taking place on September 12. If the girl group’s pleads impact at least some shareholders’ decision, they will gain better traction for the future.
