KATSEYE released “Animal,” alongside a dark and edgy music video, on July 24, 2026. The second pre-release single from their forthcoming third EP WILD, due August 14 via Hybe UMG and Geffen Records, the track arrives as a clear declaration that the group Sophia Laforteza, Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Megan Skiendiel, and Yoonchae have been building toward something larger than anything in their catalog so far, and they have arrived at it with full conviction.
Described in the press release as a bold, flirtatious pop anthem that celebrates embracing your wild side, featuring punchy rhythms and an infectious hook, the track radiates confidence and chemistry while marking the group’s evolution as a defining force in global pop. That last phrase, “defining force in global pop,” is the kind of language that can read as promotional hyperbole when applied to most acts. For KATSEYE, who have spent the better part of two years turning every single release into an event and every performance into a conversation, it lands differently. They have earned the vocabulary.
The music video makes its intentions clear from the first frame. The teaser that preceded the release offered glimpses of hallways and office spaces giving way to rooms flooded in red light, ending on the word “Freaky” painted on a red nail before the group delivers the lyric “Keep your secret safe with me.” What the full video delivers on that promise is a visual world that has no obvious precedent in the group’s existing catalog. The softness and luminosity of earlier eras has been set aside entirely, replaced by a palette and an energy that feel genuinely new, like a band that has decided to stop introducing itself and start showing everyone exactly who it is.
The song itself moves with a certainty that the lyrics match. “You’re the boss, you run the circus baby,” Cyrus opens, and the track never dials that energy back from there. It is a song about knowing your own power and choosing to deploy it exactly as you please, which maps directly onto the artistic moment the group currently occupies. Two Grammys nominations, a celebrated performance at the 2026 Grammy Awards where they brought “Gnarly” to the stage in one of the night’s most talked-about sets, Coachella, a viral Gap campaign, their first headline concert tour. KATSEYE has been accumulating the kind of cultural presence that earns a song this confident the right to exist.
The group was formed through the reality series Dream Academy, the joint project between HYBE and Geffen Records that debuted in 2023, and their trajectory since has been one of the more striking stories in recent pop. Their debut EP SIS (Soft Is Strong) arrived in August 2024. Their second EP, Beautiful Chaos, followed in June 2025, supported by their first headline concert tour, the Beautiful Chaos Tour, that fall. The first pre-release single from the WILD era, “Pinky Up,” dropped on April 9 of this year, one day before their Coachella performance, and established the sonic direction that “Animal” now deepens considerably.
It is also worth noting that “Animal” arrives without member Manon Bannerman, who is on hiatus, marking the third release the group has completed without her presence. The five members who appear carry the track with the kind of unified energy that turns absence into a fact rather than a wound, and the performance across the video suggests a group that has had enough time together now to absorb any disruption into its stride.
The WILD era also includes KATSEYE: WILD HEARTS, the group’s first theatrical documentary, featuring never-before-seen footage as a tribute to their journey, their new era, and their beloved fandom the EYEKONS. The film receives limited screenings beginning in the Philippines on August 12, 2026, two days before the EP lands. For a fanbase that has followed KATSEYE from the audition rooms of Dream Academy to the Grammy stage, the documentary represents something meaningful: the first time the full arc of what they have been building will be told in a format that gives it room to breathe.
WILD arrives August 14. “Animal” is the sound of five people who know exactly what they have become.
Watch the official MV here. WILD is out August 14 via Hybe UMG and Geffen Records.
