K-pop girl group ILLIT are wearing their hearts on their sleeves

To the 13th-century Sufi mystic and poet Rumi, love was not merely a feeling but an all-consuming reality. To a romantic sceptic of the 21st century, it might as well be an embroidered cushion of questionable taste. But for K-pop group ILLIT, love is the plot, the punchline and the reason they keep going. “Ever since our debut, we’ve constantly connected the story of one album to the next. We’ve mostly sung about romance and love over the years,” Iroha, the youngest member, tells NME over a video call from Seoul. Seated next to her, with immaculate posture, are groupmates Wonhee, Yunah and Minju. That debut, the glitchy electropop anthem ‘Magnetic’, was an omnipresent earworm in spring 2024 and made history as the first debut song by a K-pop act to land on the coveted Billboard Hot 100, beginning their story with the magic of an undeniable crush. From there, the girls continued their sonic romance with the self-assured devotion of ‘Cherish (My Love)’, the first date butterflies of ‘Billyeoon Goyangi (Do The Dance)’, and earlier this year, the techno-charged declaration of who your favourite should be after an initial meet-cute with ‘It’s Me’, just to name a few. At a cursory glance...