HYBE rookie girl group TUIDE has been hit by a sudden shake-up just months after debuting, after its main creative director Kim Soyeon announced she has left her role at the company’s new sub-label ABD. The announcement, made on October 25, has set off a wave of online debate, with many fans drawing parallels to the long-running saga around senior HYBE group NewJeans.
TUIDE (Credits: HYBE)
Kim revealed her departure in a social media post, saying she was stepping away after two years with the label. She spoke about the pressure involved in shaping the group’s creative direction, and credited her team for helping her carry that vision through. She did not give a detailed reason for leaving, and the exact circumstances behind the exit remain unclear.
TUIDE Creative Director Exit Sparks NewJeans 2.0 Debate
Despite that lack of detail, the news spread quickly across social media, where the reaction was swift and often blunt. Some netizens joked that the situation felt like a repeat of the NewJeans story, while others speculated that the group’s recent comeback had underperformed, or that creative disagreements inside HYBE had played a part. None of those explanations has been confirmed, and they remain fan speculation for now.
The comparison to NewJeans is not hard to understand. The senior group has spent much of the past two years at the centre of a public dispute with HYBE and its former label ADOR, a conflict that has dominated K-pop headlines and divided fandoms. Against that backdrop, any sign of creative turmoil at another HYBE girl group is bound to be read through the same lens, fairly or not.
Will TUIDE Change Concept After Kim Soyeon Leaves?
For TUIDE fans, the biggest worry is what comes next for the group’s identity. The rookie era is widely seen as the period when a new act builds its sound, its visual world and its core fanbase, and losing the person who designed that world so early feels like a risk. Some fans fear a sudden concept change could undo the work already done, while others have urged calm, pointing out that groups can evolve gradually without losing what made them appealing in the first place.
That calmer view found support in comparisons with TWS, another HYBE group whose creative director also departed relatively early in the group’s career. Supporters noted that TWS kept its core concept and instead shifted gradually toward a more mature image over time, suggesting TUIDE could follow a similar path under new creative leadership.
For now, neither HYBE nor ABD has publicly detailed who will take over TUIDE’s creative direction, or whether the group’s planned activities will change. Until that clarity arrives, the speculation is likely to continue, with fans watching closely to see whether TUIDE’s next release keeps the identity Kim helped build, or marks the start of something new.
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Source: Koreaboo — read the full story there.
