Meet TUIDE: HYBE's New 7-Member Girl Group Drops Debut Date, With a TWICE Tie-In

HYBE's newest label ABD announced August 3 that its first girl group, TUIDE, will debut on August 24 at 6 p.m. KST with their first mini-album, TUNE & PLAY. The group has seven members, every one of them a teenager, and one of them is already drawing serious attention: Seoyeon is the younger sister of TWICE member Jihyo.

The rest of the lineup is Seohee, Elena, Jia, Saki, Sea, and Lee Hanui. Born between 2006 and 2011, the members come from Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, which ABD is billing as the engine of the group's sound. The team name traces back to the phrase "Tune the Tide," compressed and reshaped into TUIDE.

ABD is a new label operating under HYBE, and TUIDE is its first act. The person overseeing production is Han Sung-su, a producer who has worked across SEVENTEEN, After School, IZ*ONE, and TWS. That's a résumé that covers a lot of different eras and sounds, so what TUIDE actually becomes musically is worth watching.

On the album title: ABD describes TUNE & PLAY as blending different musical languages into a single rhythm (TUNE) and then maximizing the fun found inside that (PLAY). The introduction video posted to the group's official social media on August 2, titled Introductions: WE TUIDE, shows the members calling out the group name in multiple languages over a minimal beat that layers Korean, English, Japanese, and French. It's a neat piece of brand communication and also a preview of how far the multilingual concept is going to be pushed.

Before the official debut, TUIDE held a two-day preview event called PLAYGROUND on August 1 and 2 at Layer Studio 11 in Mapo-gu, Seoul, performing five tracks for industry attendees. No information had been released beforehand, so the performance landed cold, and by accounts from those present, it landed well: tight live vocals and stage presence from a group nobody had context for yet.

Whether the Jihyo connection translates into a head start with TWICE's fanbase remains to be seen, but it does mean TUIDE enters the conversation with a built-in story. ABD will be hoping the August 24 release makes the music the bigger one.