She Was Cut From KATSEYE's Debut: Now She's Charting Higher Than the Group

Adela did not make KATSEYE. She was cut in the first round of Dream Academy, the survival show that selected the group's six members, and at the time the result felt pretty final. Now she has a Capitol Records contract, a Grimes-produced viral single, and a No. 11 placement on the Billboard Hot 100, which puts her, by that measure, ahead of the group that replaced her.

For anyone who followed Dream Academy closely, her early elimination was one of the season's more painful moments. Adela had trained with the English National Ballet before entering the competition, and her dancing stood apart from other contestants in a way that was hard to ignore. The problem was timing: the documentary chronicling the road to KATSEYE's debut revealed her warmth and her reputation as a protective, big-sister figure among the trainees, but that coverage came after the voting that determined her fate. By the time fans understood who she was, she was already gone.

From indie debut to Capitol

After elimination, Adela did not disappear. She began releasing music independently, building a small but attentive audience. The turning point was a track produced by Grimes that spread organically across streaming platforms and social media, drawing in listeners who had no connection to the KATSEYE universe. That momentum was enough to attract Capitol Records, the label whose roster includes Katy Perry, Sam Smith, Troye Sivan, and The Beatles' back catalog.

Her output since signing has sharpened considerably. She has found a particularly devoted following in LGBTQ+ audiences, and her ballet-influenced performances, including videos of her dancing en pointe in ballerina shoes, have circulated widely on their own. A guest appearance on Demi Lovato's tour raised her profile further before she released the song that changed her trajectory entirely.

The Nicole Kidman song

The track that landed her on the Hot 100 names Nicole Kidman directly in its title, a decision that generated its own wave of attention independent of the music. It hit No. 1 on Spotify in the United States before settling at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, a ceiling that most major-label debuts never reach, let alone indie-to-major signatories still in their first album cycle.

Korean fans who remembered her from Dream Academy have been tracking her rise with visible satisfaction. The early returns on her streaming numbers and the speed of her chart climb suggest this is not a novelty spike. Adela is now being discussed in the U.S. as a genuine new voice in dance-pop, and given that her core skill set, classical technique, strong stage instincts, a clear artistic identity, was always there, the trajectory makes sense. Write down her name now if you haven't already.