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Everything WRONG with Saint Satine

NK's Wrld

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Saint Satine is HYBE and Geffen's newest global girl group. Three of their four members already went through a survival show two years ago, didn't make the first group, and got called back to do it again. The fourth was selected while she was still legally a minor, as required by California law to be in school during the month her competitors were training full-time.

Before they've released a real body of work, there's already a racism controversy nobody has addressed, a selection controversy nobody has explained, and a song in their debut catalogue with adult innuendo.

This video gets into all of it. Where Saint Satine came from, the company behind them, every controversy surrounding their formation, and what the whole situation says about an industry that keeps doing this to young women and calling it an opportunity.

If you haven't seen my Katseye video, watch that first. Link above. It's important context for everything we cover here.

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ABOUT NK'S WRLD:
Hey, I’m Nkiruka, but you can call me NK! This podcast is your go-to space for smart, funny, and unfiltered stories about beauty, culture, and modern womanhood. Expect deep dives that challenge beauty standards, decode viral trends, and explore what it truly means to be a modern woman.

Timestamps:
saint satine: 0:00
setting the scene: 1:51
The rise of Saint Satine: 16:31
exploitation of young women: 37:09

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Keywords:
saint satine, katseye, manon, hybe, geffen, popstar academy, lexie levin, sakura,

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20 Comments

@NkirukasWrld Creator 3 months ago (edited) Pinned

@xPRETTYBOTx 2 months ago (edited)

HXG just announced that Lexie left Saint Satine😭😭😭

@MobbyLovely 3 months ago

picking a 15/16 year old minor over ayana who was way more technically skilled just for tv ratings and "aura" is wild. especially when their concepts and songs have such heavy mature innuendos.

@kyle9023 3 months ago (edited)

haven’t even debut and they are already getting their dark video essay😭 seated for this

@Thil 3 months ago

Some small notes:
- Hybe labels does not use a trainee debt system anymore. The moment you debut, your debt is set to 0. You do however still have to make sure you and your group makes enough money for the costs made after debut (more lessons, housing, food, clothing, etc.). So it is still exploitative, but not nearly as bad as it used to be in that regard
- For most companies you also don't have to pay back your trainee debt if you end up never debuting and they kick you out of the trainee program. If you choose to leave yourself you do have to pay it back though, but if after say 5 years you are not ready to debut but are getting "too old" by their standards, they'll just kick you out and the cost of training and housing does not have to be paid back. (For most companies, not all though)

@soyeonistic 3 months ago

There's no way lexie didn't know sid the sloth controversy..... Emily looked visibly upset

@lovemimifr 3 months ago

OMG yes, thank you for this. I feel like hybexgeffen just wanted to bring attention to the group and also i do believe sakura will eventually be better as she is improving very quickly, though i do agree with many people that she should have been trained more

@Ditto-thee-channel 3 months ago

Actually quick correction BTS did struggle quite a bit when they first debuted in 2013 they got some momentum during the Skool Luv Affair era with the song Boy in love. But they got their big comeback and first music show win in 2015. I remember this especially because I started highschool the year they debut and me and my friends like kpop. One of them got me into BTS in early 2014 with Skool Luv Affair and I brought her their album that got their first win for her birthday in 2015

@mashka1572 3 months ago

well kpop fans named hybe "shein of kpop" fore debuting a girl group after a girl group, but hybe just shipped this model overseas

@aitorlejarza 3 months ago

the worst thing is fans glorify this kind of treatment. they admire what they had to endure to be where idols are…

@Xxjayp3nx 3 months ago (edited)

They 1000% wanted Lexie, not only did they get her on the next group, but pretty much every dream academy trailer during the competition part of the show highlighted mostly her and Manon and we know how bad they wanted her to debut, she was even a perfect match of the perfect global group drawing they made before the competition

@vanhailie 3 months ago

the GLAM girls disbanded bc one (or maybe 2?) of the members tried to blackmail another Korean celebrity for a looooot of money

@anshi542 3 months ago

As an Indian it's really sad to me that the outrage abt samara has died down, Indian and south asian hate as become so normalised everywhere with people spreading misinformation abt us, it really tells you how less people truly care

@Izumi-ve9bn 3 months ago

Honestly the biggest problem with Sakura isn’t that she doesn’t have all that training but it’s that she’s doesn’t fit in the group. When wonhee debuted she received a lot of hate since she “only debuted because she’s pretty” but after debuting her improvements are noticeable in every performance. But Sakura goes in a global group without knowing the language and significantly younger than her members I just know the seconds she turns 18 it’s gonna be Katseye all over again.

@anyaaa2801 3 months ago (edited)

I also think Sakura was chosen because her being a minor would bring them free publicity despite Ayana being the better pick than her.

I hope Ayana finally gets into a great girl group. Heck I think she even has the potential to be a solo artist. YES SHE IS THAT GOOD.

@naturellebella 3 months ago

I didn’t even realize Ayana was the same person through these clips because of how much weight she lost by the time she was performing “We Ride”. It looks like they forced her to lose weight too and yet still didn’t choose her, even though she sang and danced better.

@duhzziee 3 months ago

I feel like Lexi having low energy during the live performance could very likely be: she doesn't like the song and/or giving them a bad song was a publicity stunt and she knows this.

@sindywiththeumbrella 3 months ago (edited)

6:55 i think they fell off due to a scandal. so basically, a member along with her friend attempted to blackmail an actor by threatening to release a secretly filmed video. she got sentenced to a year in prison, but after the actor requested leniency, her sentence was reduced to. two-year suspended sentence. then Big Hit announced the group’s disbandment.
28:35 even the song Sakura performed, Party b4 the party, has twerking choreography

@AngellaBanda-l4y 3 months ago

There was absolutely no reason for Sakura to win over Ayana; whatever explanation they had didn't make any sense. Like WTF. it still pisses me off till this day.

@AngellaBanda-l4y 3 months ago

I feel like Lexie really shined in the We Ride performance because it leaned more on vocals, and that’s where she’s strongest. But looking back at the final performance, the issue becomes obvious: the group didn’t have a natural balance. Samara’s vocals are significantly stronger than Lexie’s and everyone else’s. Emily’s dancing is on another level compared to the rest too. When it was just Lexie, Emily, and Samara training together, there was a real sense of harmony — each of them filled a different lane, and it worked.

Adding Sakura disrupted that balance. It’s not that she’s untalented, but her skill set didn’t blend with the dynamic the other three had already built. The cohesion just wasn’t there. I know they’ve been training since the show ended, and I’m sure things have improved, but it still doesn’t feel like it “sticks like glue.”

I was genuinely rooting for this group — especially Emily, Samara, and Lexie. but good luck to them!