On November 15 KST, media outlet OSEN published an interview with CEO Kim Tae Ho of BeLift Lab, addressing the controversy surrounding the girl group ILLIT.
Accusations of ILLIT's similarity to fellow HYBE Labels girl group NewJeans surfaced immediately after the BeLift Lab girl group's debut. However, it wasn't until April of this year, when former CEO Min Hee Jin of ADOR personally raised the accusations against BeLift Lab, that the phrase "copycat" became associated with ILLIT.
The issue made headlines once again when in October, Min Hee Jin submitted alleged "evidence" to the Seoul Central District Court to support her claims that ILLIT's production files had plagiarized the production files of NewJeans.
In his interview with OSEN, Kim Tae Ho of BeLift Lab began, "It is my belief that there is not a single team who debuted after NewJeans who was not influenced by the girl group in some way. Their success is just incredible. Whether those teams chose to go with a similar concept, or go with a different concept, the influence was definitely there. But if you ask me directly, 'Was there ever a moment when you thought that if your group copied NewJeans, you would achieve success more easily?', then I would answer, 'No'."
Kim Tae Ho added on, "I will tell you again. ILLIT never plagiarized Min Hee Jin's or NewJeans's concepts. We have the evidence to support these claims, but I can't just ask the public to read through all of the documents and see for themselves. Just as I said during the National Assembly audit, this is a matter for the court to decide."
Next, the BeLift Lab CEO talked about ILLIT's reactions to the plagiarism controversy. He mentioned, "Of course, the members suffered from it. But in the beginning, because they did not want to burden the company, they said that they were fine, then dealt with the stress all on their own. They were especially shocked by the 'Ignore it' controversy. The members know very well what happened during that incident. They said, 'Why do they have to go this far?'. They wanted to know what they did wrong. I think they were afraid to go on stage after that."
The CEO continued, "But now, I think that they've become more resilient. If they can get through these trials, they will grow as artists. They've matured. They've matured so much that I feel sorry for what they had to go through. Once again, I would like to clarify that no one told the ILLIT members to 'ignore' anyone."
Lastly, the BeLift Lab CEO emphasized that ILLIT's goal is to show the public their true colors as a team while breaking free from limiting frames.
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