JurinLeader
Turned professional as a snowboarder at 12, years before XG.
Their story
Scouted in Japan, trained in Korea
XG started with a search across Japan in 2016. Producer JAKOPS and the Avex label XGALX picked 21 trainees and spent about five years narrowing them down, with lessons that went back and forth between Japan and Korea. Jurin later said they cut back on sleep to practise. The seven who made it, Jurin, Chisa, Hinata, Harvey, Juria, Maya and Cocona, debuted in March 2022 with "Tippy Toes", sung in English.
"Shooting Star" and the wolf pack
Before debut they had drawn attention with song and dance covers. The first real chart moment was "Shooting Star" in early 2023, which entered the US Mediabase Top 40, the first Japanese group to get there, while the B-side "Left Right" spread on Spotify's viral lists. From then on the releases came quicker: New DNA, the all-rap "Woke Up" and AWE. The fans, ALPHAZ, take their name from the leader of a wolf pack, and the wolf keeps turning up in songs like "Howling".
X-POP
XG call their music X-POP. In practice that means R&B and hip-hop, English lyrics and K-pop training, made by a Japanese label. Harvey described AWE as a deeper angle on R&B. The raps carry a lot of the weight, helped by Maya's international-school English and Jurin's long practice sessions. The visuals go big: the "Howling" video sends them through a concrete wasteland fighting machines with QR codes for faces.
Where they are now
In 2025 XG played Coachella and, in May, closed their first world tour at Tokyo Dome. In January 2026 the label said the G now stands for Genes, not Girls, since all seven members had turned 20. A few days later came THE CORE, their first full album, led by "HYPNOTIZE". The world tour of the same name opened in Yokohama that February, with all seven still on board.
