On April 2, the KISS OF LIFE members sparked a massive online controversy after a birthday livestream that caused uproar. Members Julie, Natty, Belle, and Haneul dressed up in an “old-school hip-hop” theme, using slang and gestures that many viewers found racially insensitive. Following the livestream, fans and users alike demanded an apology and real accountability for their actions.
Initially, the girl group’s agency, S2 Entertainment, posted an official statement addressing the controversy and apologizing. However, fans wanted to hear from the members themselves. On April 5, a couple of days after the drama started, KISS OF LIFE finally released a handwritten letter to their fandom, Kissy.
Check out the full apology here:
KISS OF LIFE issues an apology letter over racial stereotype controversy during their recent livestream:
“Our intention was to show how much we loved the category of old school hip hop because it greatly influences our music. While shooting the content we ended up taking the… pic.twitter.com/qo4f6xrNfL
— Pop Base (@PopBase) April 5, 2025
The backlash was fierce—all of their social media platforms suffered a significant drop in followers. For example, their TikTok was down by 100,000 followers, and Instagram reported a loss of 78,438. By April 3, they had already lost 56,172 followers, followed by another 22,266 on April 4. YouTube saw an 8,000-subscriber drop. Similarly, their fan pages on X and other sites decided to close. Only time will tell if fans will take their apology and move forward with KISS OF LIFE.
