On November 22, ILLIT was honored with the Best New Female Artist award during the first day of the MAMA Awards held in Los Angeles, USA.
ILLIT members couldn’t hold back their tears of joy on stage. Member Yuna stated, “It’s already such an honor to perform on the grand stage of the MAMA Awards, a dream we’ve worked toward since our trainee days. Receiving the prestigious rookie award makes us sincerely grateful.”
She continued, “What comes to mind the most are the times we struggled as trainees. I want to tell my members that they’ve worked so hard. Also, without GLLIT (ILLIT fandom), we wouldn’t have been able to win this award. Thank you so much,” expressing deep gratitude to their fans.
Yuna added, “We will become ILLIT, a group that shines alongside GLLIT for a long time. Moving forward, we will show you more of our own things and performances unique to us,” delivering a meaningful message.
It seems like the girl group has somewhat made their response to the previous allegations of them copying NewJeans.
ILLIT debuted in March with their single “Magnetic”. The song made history as the first K-pop debut track to enter both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Official Singles Chart Top 100.
However, controversy arose as Min Hee-jin, the former CEO of ADOR who produced NewJeans, accused ILLIT of plagiarizing NewJeans. In response, ILLIT’s agency, Belift Lab, repeatedly refuted the allegations through various media, including video evidence, asserting that the claims were baseless.
On the same day, Min Hee-jin filed a complaint against Belift Lab CEO Kim Tae-ho and Vice President Choi Yoon-hyuk with the Yongsan Police Station, accusing them of defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act. Additionally, she announced her intent to file a lawsuit demanding 5 billion KRW in damages against Belift Lab.
Source: Daum
