KATSEYE, the global girl group, has been one of the commercial revelations of the last year. Especially their hit ‘Gnarly’ has popularized them, although their noisy hyperpop style divided their audience at first. Later, the reggae-pop of ‘Gabriela’ and the R&B-pop of ‘Gameboy’ – one of the best songs of the year for JENESAISPOP – successfully softened their proposal, making it more digestible for less Tiktoker listeners.
But KATSEYE is back at it again. ‘Internet Girl’, her new single, may surprise anyone who is cured of fear. And I don’t say this so much because of its raw mix of styles – it includes EDM, drum n’ bass, electropop, even some nineties psychedelia – but because of the recurring appearance of a baby voice announcing “I’m leaving here”, like a girl lost at a rave at six in the morning.
The childish component of ‘Internet Girl’ is just as sought after as its structure subject to attention deficit. In the song, the members of KATSEYE – Daniela, Lara, Manon, Megan, Sophia and Yoonchae – sing in a shouted, high school cheerleader register. In addition, the lyrics repeat the rhyme “eat zucchini / read the emoji”, where “zucchini” (“zucchini”) would function as a penis metaphor, although Justin Tranter – the main composer – has not confirmed this interpretation. Maybe they just needed a three-syllable word that rhymes with “emoji,” even though the zucchini emoji doesn’t even exist (the cucumber emoji does, but “eat the cucumber” doesn’t rhyme).
‘Internet Girl’ is intended to be a commentary on the scrutiny to which women are subjected on the internet. The lyrics include expressions like “click it”, point to those slimy guys who take “screenshots” of hot photos and conclude with the statement: “envy is overrated.”
‘Internet Girl’ is a song as absurd and “annoying” as other songs that are equally absurd and “annoying”, such as ‘Anaconda’ (2014) by Nicki Minaj, which also played with sexual innuendos disguised as a vegetable (let’s leave it here). The musical production seems to contain references to the robotic Robyn or the two-thousand Sugababes, among other ingredients thrown into the mixer, but the composition goes the other way, abandoning all class to devote itself to its task of disturbing.
And it is annoying. The public has received it positively in streaming – on Spotify it debuted at number 13 globally – but it is almost impossible to find a positive review of the song. Some, naive, have dared to name it the “biggest disaster of 2026”, in a comment dated January 1.
There are those who, based on its explosive sound, compare ‘Internet Girl’ with the “brainrot” content of the Internet, and others say that the song is “the equivalent of scrolling for 10 minutes on your cell phone, just as useless and forgotten in seconds.” As with ‘Gnarly’, many perceive an interesting song, at least capable of generating debate, but never “good.” In the worst case, a nuisance with which to terrorize your neighbors. In fact, not even the “EYECONS” – that’s the name of their fandom – can hide their horror at the song; They say ‘Gnarly’ got a pass, but ‘Internet Girl’ didn’t.
But none of this is a big deal. In fact, there are those who justify the release of ‘Internet Girl’ by emphasizing that the song is not a “single” per se, but rather a gift for fans (perhaps it is a “buzz track”, like ‘Focus’ by Ariana Grande), and that, in fact, it is a song that KATSEYE has been playing live for months. The original version simply did not include that baby voice that aims to appear soon in your nightmares, without warning. You can’t scroll there.
Charging …