Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I didn't manage to get it finished yet. :)
The 90s and 00s was the era of girl groups in the West, in the US and the UK in particular, with groups like En Vogue, the Spice Girls, Destiny's Child, Atomic Kitten, Sugababes, Mis-Teeq and Pussycat Dolls dominating the charts. In the years since, girl groups (along with boybands) have largely faded away and there are predominately solo singers.
In other parts of the world, especially Asia, girl groups have remained popular. You'll see this in the K-pop industry particularly. I have often featured Korean girl groups on the blog and also from other Asian in my Asian Groups series in recent years. (The series covers both female and male groups.)
I've also written a couple of posts about international girl groups (African and South East Asian). Some of these are older groups though.
There are a few exceptions in the West, such as Fifth Harmony, who went on an indefinite hiatius in 2018 and have since concentrated on their solo careers. And BOYS WORLD, who I unfortunately discovered around the time they disbanded in 2024 (after 4 years together)!
However, it seems that in recent years girl groups are making a comeback. British girl group Sugababes reunited as the original line-up of Keisha Buchanan, Mutya Buena and Siobhan Donaghy in 2013 (regaining the rights to the Sugababes name in 2019 after previously releasing music under MKS). Since then they have released their 8th album The Lost Tapes in 2022 and several singles, the most recent being Shook in July last year.
And the Pussycat Dolls have just announced that they are returning as a trio, consisting of Nicole Scherzinger, Kimberly Wyatt and Ashley Roberts. They released a new single called Club Song earlier this month and will go on tour in North America and Europe later in the year.
As for new groups, in the UK there are FLO (formed in 2019) and Say Now (who formed as needanamebro in 2022, before debuting as Say Now in 2023), and in America, a few are KATSEYE, GIRLSET (formerly VCHA) and 3Quency.
KATSEYE is considered a global girl group (their members are from different countries) and was created using the K-pop system (similar to Japanese girl group XG). They were formed through Dream Academy in 2023 in a collaboration between K-pop entertainment company HYBE (whose most famous signing is probably BTS) and American record company Geffen Records.
Elesewhere, W.i.S.H became India's first girl group in 22 years in 2024 and manifest from Turkey debuted last year.
I've decided to make this a mini series, focusing on a different group in each post. I've called it "New Generation" in reference to the K-pop groups which are called different generations from 1st to 5th.
Today I'm featuring American girl group GIRLSET. :)
GIRLSET's beginning is similar to KATSEYE's (see above), having been formed through the American reality show A2K (America 2 Korea), a collaboration between South Korean record label JYP Entertainment (one of the biggest Korean record labels) and American record label Republic Records. They were intended to be the first American girl group formed using the K-pop system.
They were originally named VCHA, which comes from the Korean word "Bichwo" (meaning "to shine the light") with the purpose of inspiring others. JYP boss JY Park came up with the name.
VCHA consisted of 6 members- leader Lexi (real name Lexus Vang), Camila Ribeaux Valdes, Kendall Ebeling, Savanna Blanca Collins, KG Crown (Keira Grace Madder) and Kaylee Sohee Lee. The members are mostly from the US (Lexi, Savanna, KG and Kendall) but Camila is Canadian (born in Spain) and Kaylee has both Korean and US citizen ship/
They also have a variety of heritages/ethnic background and and a couple of the members are mixed race, which I think is cool, as a mixed person myself (plus it's good to have representation of different backgrounds in general) :)
The group released their pre-debut digital single SeVit (New Light) in September 2023, alongside the lead single Y.O. Universe. Their 2nd pre-debut single Ready for the World (which had been the theme song for A2K) followed in December that year.
VHCA made their official debut with the single Girls of the Year in January 2024 and released one more single- Only One in March 2024.
The group started to run into problems in 2024, when member KG announced that she as leaving VCHA and JYP Entertainment due to alleged abuse and mistreatment by JYP Entertainment staff members. She filed a lawsuit against JYP USA, which was later settled in 2025. The company denied her claims. However, the treatment of trainees and idols in the K-pop industry has long been a talking point.
Kaylee was the 2nd member to officially leave in July last year, after previously taking a hiatus due to a health issue. In August 2025, it was announced that VCHA was rebranding as 4-member girl GIRLSET.
Their first single as GIRLSET was Commas, released in August. To date they have brought out two more- Little Miss in November last year and Tweak earlier this month. There is alo a remix of Little Miss featuring American rapper Missy Elliot, which was released in this January.
Note: I've included a couple of videos from the time of VCHA, to properly reflect the group's history. :)
Y.O. Universe (VCHA)
Y.O. Universe was VCHA' s first pre-debut single, released in September 2023. It was from their debut EP SeVit (NEW LIGHT) and had also previously been performed by the girls when they were contestants on A2K.
Girls of the Year (VCHA)
The original group's official debut single, Girls of the Year came out in January 2024. Its b-side was Call Me (XO).
Commas
The rebranded GIRLSET released Commas as their debut single in August last year. Its a digital single.
Commas is an upbeat pop song. The response to the comeback was mixed, with many fans feeling that the music video was too low budget and some considering the track underwhelming.
There's also a choreography video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jseq867D0O0
Little Miss
2nd single Little Miss came out last November. It's a pop and R'n'B song and the members have described it as having "Y2K 00s vibes".
It was well received by fans. The girls also teamed up with Missy Elliot for a remix, which came out in January.
Listen to the remix here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fspTG2e2Tk&list=RD-fspTG2e2Tk&start_radio=1
Tweak
Finally, here is Tweak, the group's latest single. It was relaeed on 6th March. Tweak has been described as "sexy drill K-pop style" .Like Little Miss, it gives me 00s/10s pop and R'n'B vibes!
For more GIRLSET visit these links:
VCHA Kprofile: https://kprofiles.com/vcha-members-profile/
GIRLSET Kprofile: https://kprofiles.com/girlset-members-profile/
Official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSskmnvIhEy3nSZxxVKTeIg
Hope you enjoyed the post! :) What do you think o GIRLSET and their evolution from VCHA?
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