Photo Credit: JYP Entertainment
JYP Entertainment’s first global girl group, VCHA, is aligning the stars between America and Korea with their debut song, “Y.O.Universe,” with the idea behind their group being an American girl group under the influence of K-Pop, being trained in Korea.
Uniting together from JYP Entertainment’s survival group show America2Korea, also known as A2K, the girls of VCHA were brought together. In A2K we follow VCHA’s story from auditions to their first performances, to the announcement of the finalized group. VCHA now presents “Y.O.Universe,” the song and video encapsulating their journeys as artists.
During an exclusive Zoom call, we had the privilege of meeting the six members of VCHA, who joined us live from Korea in JYP’s training room. Allow them to introduce themselves: Lexi, who helps keep the group focused and organized; Camila, the mom of the group; Kendall, the self-proclaimed artist VCHA; Savanna, the cool dance teacher; KG, the member who enjoys song writing; Kaylee, the youngest of the group.
Join the girls for one of their first on-screen interviews here, or follow along as we unravel the facets of their journey. Discover what this single signifies to them, explore their sources of inspiration, delve into their MBTI types, and learn more about the girls.
Lexi: 1,2
VCHA: Hi we are VCHA!
Kaylee: Hi I’m Kaylee, I’m 13 years old, and I am the youngest in VCHA.
Lexi: Hi I’m Lexi, I’m 17, and I help try to keep the group focused and organized.
Kendall: Hi, I’m Kendall, I’m 17 and I’m from Texas, and I am the self-proclaimed artist of the group.
Camila: Hi I’m Camila, I’m 18 years old, and I’m the Mom of the group.
Savanna: Hi I’m Savanna, I’m 17 years old, and I’ll say I’m the cool dance teacher of the group.
KG: Hi I’m KG I’m 16, i guess im the musical one who enjoys song writing as well.
If I’m correct, you guys don’t have a random name yet! I was wondering if you could choose one, what could it be?
Savanna: We haven’t really officially even thought of one together. I feel like I’m not the most creative person out there. So I haven’t come up with anything that good.
Lexi: It’s kind of hard to try and find something that connects to our name too!
Camila: I’m just going to say we definitely had some thoughts about the name. I think we’ve come up with a few ideas, you know! You never know, it’s still in the process, you never know.
Do any of you want to get into the exact meaning behind VCHA?
Kaylee: VCHA comes from the korean word 비쳐. Which means to shine, or illuminate, as JY Park explained during the show. So we’re all here because we have role models and people we look up to that inspired us to be in the music industry. We want to shine or illuminate a path that other people can also look up to, and be inspired by us to follow their dreams.
From the show to once you guys finally got announced as a group, up until all the training, and now your debut. How much time has passed since then?
Kendall: It’s only been about 2 1/2 months since the show ended.
Camila: Since the show ended.
Kendall: So regionals was last year, 2022 September. The LA boot camp was in November, the beginning of November. And the Korean boot camp ended about July. So it’s been only a couple months.
Savanna: About a year to now since we started.
What have the last new months looked like for you guys, training I’m sure.
Savanna: Like you said, just been training super hard for our debut. The last few months we’ve been preparing a lot for our title track “Y.O Universe” because we did perform those on the show, but now as six, of course we had to learn new parts of the choreography, and like, the formations with the six of us. So we’ve just been training super hard on the dance and the vocals as well. Full of lessons and just, yeah! That’s how we spend most of our days, just training for our debut.
Kendall: Alongside with that we’ve also been just hanging out a lot as a group to just bond together. Because obviously we spend a lot of time together on the show, but now was one group and we want to get to know each other a lot, a lot more! So we spend a lot of time just going to each other’s rooms, talking and hanging out. Being like, ‘Hey! Want to go to this.’ Eating meals together, and just having fun!
I was wondering if any of you guys feel that this song (Y.O.Universe) has a special meaning to you, as it is one of your first tracks.
Kendall: I believe that this song for us as a group is a very important track because, for one, it is written about us to describe us coming together as a group. For example, in the beginning of the song it says, ‘Some from the West Side and from the East Side,’ which is about us all coming together. Then, in the lyrics it says, ‘We are who we are,’ because we are now one as a group. It’s also portrayed in the music video of us coming together, to be together as one group, so it portrays a very important message that we want to explain as well as just being yourself! It’s okay to just be who you are and just fully express that, and to share that meaning is very important for us as a group.
What is your favorite thing that all six of you do together that gets your mind off any stress, or missing home?
Camila: I’m going to be honest, we usually hang out randomly, in pairs.
Kendall: We usually go eat together
Camila: It’s usually like, I’ll go to her room and then she’ll go to someone else’s room. Then the next day I’ll go to her room. We see each other all the time, but it’s usually pairs.
KG: Me and Kaylee, we like to take random walks together. Eat some food, go shopping at the mall.
Savanna: Me and Kendall we like to-
Kendall: The PC cafe!
Savanna: We like to game a lot! So, we’re definitely gaming duos together.
Lexi: Camila will just randomly ring on my doorbell. She’ll just invite herself in, and sit on my bed and just start looking at YouTube. She just chills there! We don’t really talk, but our way of hanging out is going on our phones right next to each other.
Camila: It’s either that, or we talk a lot. Like, deep talks and stuff. I also like going with Kendall, we go buy albums.
Kendall: Go shopping, yeah! And boba, go eating!
What is your MBTI type?
Savanna: So we’ve all taken the quiz, you’ll probably notice a little trend as we go on.
Kaylee: I am ISTJ.
Lexi: I’m ISFP.
Kendall: I’m ISTJ.
Camila: I am INFJ.
Savanna: I am ISFJ.
KG: I’m ISFP.
Kendall: Yeah, so we’re all ‘I’s’.
What inspired you to take this leap? Were there any specific people, or passions in the past that inspired you to pursue singing, performing or dancing?
All the girls get into their detailed answers here and talk about dream collaborations, including artists like Ariana Grande, Shakira, Nmixx, Itzy and Stray Kids, as well as their own past with performing!
Now, let’s get into some individual questions.
Are there any Hmong dishes you can recommend to me and the fans?
Lexi: There are a lot of good dishes! But one I really really love, it’s super simple. It’s a classic, we just call them Hmong Sausages. You can just think of them as Bratwurst, but it has like a little Asian twist to it! It’s got some ginger, herbs in there. It’s really good to pair with, we have sticky rice but it’s purple. Then one thing that we would eat with that is really spicy pepper, like juicy pepper sauce kinda. So you would just dip your sausage in it, and eat it with the purple sticky rice together.
Is there anything you want to say either in French or Spanish, or both, to your fans around the world?
Camila: Hola soy Camila de VCHA, muchas gracias a escuchar nuestra música y apoyar nos desde el inicio de nuestra historia hasta ahora. Los quiero muchísimo y espero verlos muy pronto! Muchos besos, y gracias a todos los fans de Norte América!
Bonjour je suis Camila de VCHA merci beaucoup pour votre appui. On est extrêmement heureuse de vous avoir avec nous et j’espère vous voir très bientôt. Je vous aime beaucoup beaucoup beaucoup au revoir.
We see the rest of you and the rest of VCHA always covering songs on A2K, which song would you personally love to cover with the group?
Kendall: I believe that there is one song in my mind that as a group I feel like we would kill it! It would be amazing. Which would be “CRY FOR ME” by TWICE. I feel that it’s an extremely powerful song. I just get the feeling that we would do really good at it. It’s been on my mind for a long time.
Between the start of A2K, to now in your debut in VCHA, how do you think you’ve improved as a performer?
Savanna: I feel like as a performer I have learned so many different aspects. Of course not only just singing and dancing, as well as just the importance of character. I believe that your character really shines also when you’re on stage, I think what’s inside is a lot easier to get out a great result. Also, we have something great inside of you! You’re just a good person inside of you. Not saying I was not a good person before I joined! I just really like the importance of that. I think I just learned how to be more professional with it, cause I always was dancing before. So my journey on A2K really prepared me with deadlines and performing on stage, and how to deal with the pressure and nervousness. I just think I learned how to handle a lot of that stuff that all artists around the world just know how to deal with at this point. I’m really grateful for the whole experience, I would do it again possibly!
I heard you had a Harry Potter Collection! I was just wondering what house are you in, and what house would you place the rest of the girls in.
Kaylee: So I have taken the test multiple times, I think 3 or 4 times. Each time I have been in Slytherin. For the members I believe Kendall is a Ravenclaw, because she’s- I feel like it’s so obvious, she’s really clever.’ I believe Savanna would be a Gryffindor, because she’s very brave and she also is really good at helping everyone else. I’ve learned from being on a team with her two times. Lexi and KG I feel like they’d be a Hufflepuff because they’re so loyal and they’re so kind! It’s just so nice to hang out with them, they make me feel safe. Camila, I actually have no idea- I feel like she’d be either Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, because she helps everyone but she’s also so kind and patient at the same time. I don’t think I could place her.
Right from your audition in A2K I really loved your style! I was just wondering what fashion trend or piece you’ve been into recently.
KG: Oh Boy! I love fashion, not just good style, but I’ve been someone who is very interested in high fashion and photography. I really like the really unique looks with bright colors or when people wear things over their head. All the really cool things I like. But right now I’m really obsessed with Celine. I just recently bought a Celine hat, and I’ve been wearing it a lot. So if you ever see me on the street, I’m probably in my Celine hat somewhere. I would say right now that’s what I’m into.
Is there anything you want to say to your fans or supporters?
Lexi: As a group we’re all really grateful for all the love and support we received, especially on the show, and as a group now. We will continue to work hard, do our best as a group! Please look forward to the future of VCHA and our content!
This is just the start of VCHA and we cannot wait to see more from them.
Check out the full video interview here and stream their music video to “Y.O.Universe” here.
Photo Credit: JYP Entertainment
For more of VCHA:
Twitter: Official_VCHA
Instagram: @america2korea
YouTube: VCHA
TikTok: @VCHA
