Tough cookies: How pop group Le Sserafim overcame internal conflict and internet trolls

ShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleMark SavageMusic correspondentReutersThe pop graveyard is full of bands who fell out, melted down and broke up. British boyband Five split after their backstage arguments escalated into fist fights. A row about a jacket sparked All Saints deciding to part ways. Oasis took a 16-year hiatus after Liam Gallagher threw a plum at his brother Noel. But it's rare to hear a group talk about resolving their problems. So I've a huge amount of admiration for the latest album by Korean girl group Le Sserafim. Sitting in the middle of the tracklist is a song called Need Your Company, which details the history of friction between New York-born member Huh Yunjin, and her bandmate Kim Chaewon. "Is friendship all just for show?" they sing over a melancholy guitar line. "I really wanna trust you... no matter how you hurt me." "I wanted to talk about that weird, complicated mix of emotions where you want to be close to someone but it's physically hard for you to admit it," says Yunjin, on a call from Le Sserafim's record label offices in Seoul. "There are times when you doubt your own emotions, like, 'Oh, am I the only one who wants to be this intimate? Are they not committed to this relationship?'" Chaewon – who is absent from our interview as she recovers from a neck injury – has attributed the song's angst to communication problems, rather than personal animosity. "If you look at the lyrics, you might think it's a conflict, but people are just different, you know?" she told the Korean talk show Lee Mu-jin Service. "There was a time spent adjusting to those differences." "Sometimes saying, 'you hurt me', can sound harsh," Yunjin explained in the album's liner notes, "but it can also mean I care enough about us that I want things to get better." "The things that were hard for each other... There was a time we talked openly and worked through it," Chaewon explained. "And we actually got closer, to be honest." So close, in fact, that the singers ultimately chose to pair up for a terrifying, 233-metre tandem bungee jump from China's Macau tower. Maybe Noel and Liam should have tried that. The maturity it takes to confront big interpersonal problems is rare - but it's also a hallmark of Le Sserafim's take on K-pop, which mixes serious self-awareness with playful absurdity. The band, completed by Miyawaki Sakura, Nakamura Kazuha and Hong Eunchae, debuted in 2022, with sophisticated, bass-heavy dance tracks like Antifragile and Unforgiven. Their name is an anagram of the phrase "I'm Fearless", and those early songs channelled the girl group trope of combative, bulletproof confidence. But their resolve was tested by a particularly nasty online hate campaign that targeted everything from their live vocals, to their appearance and even their families. A 2024 documentary showed the impact on the quintet. "I don't understand why I'm doing this, suffering and crying," sobbed Sakura – a pop veteran, who'd never encountered such vitriol in her previous bands, HKT48 and Iz*One. Against that background, however, Le Sserafim became one of the world's biggest pop acts, with five Top 10 albums in the US, and more than 33,000 appearances on Spotify's global charts. As they've matured, their music's become more quirky and adventurous. The house beats of 2024's Crazy channelled New York ballroom culture (this award show performance is eye-poppingly brilliant) while 2025's Come Over was produced by British dance act Jungle. PinkPantheress is a fan, collaborating on a remix of Crazy, and calling the band’s music “way ahead of its time”. Katseye, who share a label with Le Sserafim, say the senior band helped when they encountered their own internet trolls. "Yunjin, I talk to her almost every single day," says Katseye's Sophia Laforteza. "I feel like, if there is anyone that would understand us, it's them," adds her bandmate Lara Raj. And if you ever need a masterclass in handling criticism, you don't have to look further than Spaghetti. A one-off single, released last October, it's a delicious takedown of Le Sserafim's haters, that asks the question: "If we're really that terrible, how come you're so obsessed?" Dripping with sarcastic self-confidence, it has hooks within hooks, not to mention a guest verse from BTS star J-Hope. A massive viral hit, Spaghetti was also "a turning point", says Yunjin. "We realised how positive and energetic we are, especially on tour. "It turns out that having fun looks really good on us. "That helped us narrow down what we want to do for our new music, and that's how Spaghetti came along." They've always been funny off-stage - witness their futile attempts to escape rehearsals, the relentless teasing of "baby" Eunchae, or the time Kazuha infiltrated a concert queue dressed as a horse - but now they're stirring their humour into the music. Take the album track Saki. A raucous posse rap, it uses Sakura's alter-ego as a vehicle for scurrilous rumours ab

Tough cookies: How pop group Le Sserafim overcame internal conflict and internet trolls

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Tough cookies: How pop group Le Sserafim overcame internal conflict and internet trolls

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