ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin has accused South Korean entertainment giant HYBE of “undermining” the success of K-pop girl group NewJeans by creating a copycat version of the quintet.
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On Monday night (April 22), ADOR CEO Min Hee-jin accused HYBE, which owns the majority of the K-pop agency, of trying to “undermine” the success of its girl group NewJeans. The music executive’s statement came shortly after news broke that Min and HYBE were in a power struggle over ADOR.
In her statement, the ADOR CEO accused HYBE of copying the “makeup, costumes, choreography, photos, videos and event appearances” of NewJeans for the new girl group ILLIT, who recently made their debut under HYBE subsidiary Belift Lab.
“The cultural success of ADOR’s NewJeans is ironically being undermined by HYBE,” Min said, per Korea JoongAng Daily. “ILLIT is being evaluated as a derivative of NewJeans, with terms like ‘Min Hee-jin style’, ‘Min Hee-jin type’ and ‘NewJeans counterpart’.”
The ADOR CEO also claimed that she had “filed an official complaint” over what she described as the “copycat issue”, but alleged that both HYBE and Belift Lab had “refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing, merely coming up with a string of excuses and delaying concrete responses”.
In her statement, Min also refuted allegations that she was attempting to take control of ADOR, a HYBE-owned subsidiary. “I cannot understand how legitimate actions aimed at preserving the cultural achievements of affiliated artists like NewJeans are being twisted into conduct against ADOR’s interests or attempts to usurp its management rights,” the executive said.
ADOR was founded as a wholly owned subsidiary of HYBE in 2021. The entertainment giant’s stake in the K-pop agency has since gone down to 80 per cent, with Min acquiring about 18 per cent of the company in 2023, per The Korea Times. The remaining two per cent are held by other executives of the company.
Before her appointment as the CEO of ADOR, Min joined HYBE as its chief brand officer. Prior to that the music executive had been a creative director at SM Entertainment, where she worked with groups such as SHINee, f(x), Red Velvet and more.
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