NewJeans take hiatus due to court battle over name
The K-pop group NewJeans have announced they will be taking a hiatus amid an ongoing court battle with their label over their name after a judge ruled they could not continue performing.
NewJeans had attempted to rename themselves NJZ, but told fans during a concert at ComplexCon Hong Kong on March 23rd that “this will be our last performance for a little while.”
It comes after a court hearing on March 21st, during which the group was ordered to stop performing, producing music, or creating advertising deals due to their ongoing legal dispute with their label, Ador.
The band has said they will challenge the ruling as they are countering Ador’s claims with accusations of abuse and workplace harassment, and wish to break from the label.
During their final performance in Hong Kong, the five members read a letter in English and Korean addressed to the 11,000 fans in attendance, which said: “It wasn’t an easy decision, but we believe this is something we need to do at this moment.”
They added the decision was “about protecting ourselves so that we can come back even stronger. We had to speak up to protect the values that we believe in, and that was a choice that we don’t regret at all.”
In defiance of the court order, the group performed under the name NJZ at the concert, prompting a response from label Ador on March 24th which said that they “regret the members’ decision to proceed with a performance under a name other than NewJeans, despite the court order, and their unilateral announcement of a suspension of activities.”
The legal battle has been ongoing since August 2024, but the latest court ruling determined that Ador—under the parent company Hybe, the world’s biggest K-pop label that manages other global exports like BTS, had not violated its duties towards the band and that NewJeans’ claims were insufficient.
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