In a move that surprised everyone, NewJeans came on YouTube live to personally express their views and opinions on the ongoing feud between HYBE, ADOR, and ADOR’s former CEO and their group’s producer, Min Hee-jin.
The sudden livestream on September 11th was NewJeans’ first official statement about the issue, which first arose in April 2024.
In their 34-minute livestream on a new YouTube channel (which was later taken down), the NewJeans members each aired their opinions on the matter, as well as personal experiences with what was happening in HYBE during the time when the issue was still new.
(The following were translated by Soompi)
“We prepared this live broadcast because the five of us have something we really want to say,” started Hyein, the group’s youngest member. “What we have to say today is ultimately directed at HYBE. We already had a meeting with company management and expressed our opinions, but based on the events that took place after the meeting, it doesn’t seem like what we wanted was properly conveyed or communicated.”
Danielle also further emphasized on how Min Hee-jin was essential to the group’s vision and identity since the beginning. “Even before debuting as NewJeans and through all of the time that we spent together with CEO Min Hee-jin, all of us felt that the music we wanted to make and the kind of world we wanted to build together—our vision – was similar in so many ways,” Danielle began in English.
“With CEO Min Hee-jin, we were able to prepare each and every task with sincere hearts, and I believe it shows in our work. Putting our sincere effort into something is only possible because the people that we’re working with have trust in each other and have that same vision.”
“CEO Min Hee-jin is not only the person that produces our music, but someone who makes NewJeans who we are. She discusses even the smallest details with us and explains them in ways that we can understand clearly. NewJeans has a distinct color and toe, and this was created with CEO Min Hee-jin. She is integral to NewJeans’ identity, and we all feel that she is irreplaceable.”
Afterwards, Hanni recounted a time where she was essentially “bullied” by a manager of another HYBE group. She was alone at a hallway one time, and she greeted the members of a group that was passing by with their managers. As they passed, Hanni heard the manager say, “Ignore her” to the group they were handling.
Hanni said, “…Even though I could hear and see everything. Thinking about it now, I still don’t understand why I need to go through something like that.”
Hanni also said that she had said this incident to ADOR’s newest CEO, but the latter had said that there was no proof of this happening and that “it was too late” for her to do something about it. Hanni said, “Seeing her try to move past it, I felt that we had lost our protector, and I felt like [our new CEO] wasn’t worried about us. And I had told her honestly about [the incident], but I felt like in an instant, I had become a liar. But before, CEO Min Hee-jin fought for us a lot. The new [executives] say on the outside that they’ll help us, but they just made excuses and said it was an incident they couldn’t do anything about.”
NewJeans’ leader Minji also stressed Min Hee-jin’s role in the company, how HYBE and ADOR had always operated separately, so there was an obvious dilemma on how they would be able to work in the future.
Hanni agreed with this and said, “The way that ADOR used to run was the business management and creative production was not separated and was…factors that played and worked in harmony with each other. That’s how it worked, and it was perfectly fine.”
Danielle also added, “As I said before, it was our dream to perform the music we wanted to make together with Min Hee-jin, and we were working hard for that dream. But now we can no longer achieve those dreams, and we may not even get to carry out all the plans we’ve made.”
Haerin also went on to say that she (and the rest of NewJeans) want to keep on working with the same team that helped them even before they debuted. After HYBE had dismissed Min Hee-jin, they also dismissed the team that NewJeans have worked with. Haerin and the other members also remembered how they had found out that their pre-debut videos were leaked, and that they felt scared afterwards.
Recounting the time that they found out about Min Hee-jin’s dismissal, Hyein said that it was “so sudden and unexpected for all of the members” that they “honestly had a hard time.” “As artists under HYBE, that sort of unilateral announcement from the company made us certain that they don’t respect us at all,” said Hyein.
NewJeans ended their broadcast by firmly requesting Min Hee-jin’s reinstatement as ADOR’s CEO.
In English, Hanni stated, “We have the choice to choose how we will react to each situation, and we are not going to follow HYBE’s every order blindly. We are more than well aware that this is getting in the way of our work and that we should be treated much, much better than how we are right now. And it’s very hard to believe that they are truly sincere about wanting to help us continue to be able to work with our CEO Min Hee-jin…We don’t want to hear all the empty words of how they’re going to help us continue to work with CEO Min Hee-jin. And all we want is this legal conflict to be resolved and have our working environment returned back to normal, the way it was before.”
Hyein continued by asking HYBE to “return CEO Min Hee-jin to her position and to return ADOR to the way it was before,” without the unfamiliar people that were around them now.
Danielle said, “From a human perspective, I’d like you to stop bothering our CEO Min Hee-jin. Honestly, she’s so pitiful, and this just makes HYBE look like an inhumane company. What would we learn from a company like this?”
Minji wrapped everything up by saying, “What we want is the original ADOR, where Min Hee-jin is CEO and where the management and production are combined. The reason we’re making this request is because this is the [only] way we can get along with HYBE, without fighting with the company. If our opinions have been properly conveyed, we hope that Chairman Bang and HYBE will make the wise decision to return ADOR to how it was by the 25th. Thank you for listening to us.”
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