As a North American girl group who trained in South Korea under the traditional K-pop system, VCHA is especially unique. Obviously, girl groups are not a new phenomenon to the West, following the success of groups like Spice Girls and Fifth Harmony. However, they don’t come along very often, and they certainly don’t have the international flavor this group does. So here, we will fully explain what company (or companies) VCHA belongs to that is enabling them to thrive in ways other groups might not.
VCHA Is Under the Company JYP Entertainment with Republic Records
VCHA is a joint venture between South Korean music conglomerate JYP Entertainment and North American record label Republic Records, which is a division of Universal Music Group.
JYP Entertainment, also just known as JYP or JYPE, was founded in 1997 by J.Y. Park (Park Jin-young), and it is one of the largest and most powerful music companies in South Korea, alongside competitors SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, and HYBE Corporation. Unlike in the current North American music system, where most music groups self-organize and then seek a record label, the Korean music system takes a top-down approach. Korean companies themselves typically create the pop music groups, including devising a concept and selecting the individual members, and then they invest vast resources into ensuring the groups’ success. JYP Entertainment is responsible for creating monstrously successful K-pop groups like Wonder Girls, Got7, Twice, Itzy, and Stray Kids. In theory, VCHA is in very good hands with JYP Entertainment for a company.
Meanwhile, Republic Records has been a diverse publishing label for many major musicians since the ’90s, including in recent times the likes of Taylor Swift, Drake, Ariana Grande, the Jonas Brothers, Pearl Jam, and John Legend. Back in February 2020, JYP and Republic Records had entered into a strategic partnership for the distribution of Twice music, and this partnership gradually expanded to include other artists. This culminated in May 2023, when JYP and Republic Records expanded their partnership to cover the entire JYP roster of artists.
Back in July 2022, JYP Entertainment and Republic Records had announced auditions across the United States to create a North American girl group trained in the JYP system. This process would be detailed in the 22-episode series A2K, which was released directly to YouTube. (We have a full summary of the A2K series at K-Pop Answers.) The final product of A2K was of course VCHA, who would predebut in September 2023 and fully debut in January 2024. Incidentally, VCHA was actually created under circumstances extremely similar to how the Japanese girl group NiziU was created in 2020. JYP had partnered with Sony Music Entertainment Japan for a TV series called Nizi Project, which created NiziU as a Japanese girl group trained in the JYP system.
The Difference Between VCHA and Other K-Pop Groups for Training and Management
There is one notable difference in how JYP trains the VCHA members compared to how the company trains most of its music groups. A feature published at Nylon in October 2023 explained that, even when VCHA is training in South Korea, the group operates under California’s regulations for minors working in the entertainment industry. This means “limiting hours working each day (6 hours for younger minors, 8 for older ones), providing educational tutors, and having guardians present when necessary.” K-pop groups are known for putting excessive hours into their training and promotions, but these regulations ensure that VCHA will have a slightly less strenuous time. (As a point of comparison, the DSP Media / Beats Entertainment girl group Young Posse recorded their debut music video over a period of 22 hours, and the youngest member of that group was 13 years old at the time of filming.)
So to summarize what company VCHA belongs to, VCHA is under JYP Entertainment in partnership with Republic Records. JYP is home to the likes of K-pop groups like Twice and Stray Kids, while Republic Records is home to the likes of Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande. Unlike a typical K-pop group, VCHA works slightly fewer hours in accordance with California work regulations.
For much more about the group, check out how old the VCHA members currently are, who their leader is, or what their MBTIs are. We also have a full explanation of where the VCHA members are originally from and what languages they speak in total. We even maintain an archive of all the VCHA music videos, to make it easy and convenient to watch everything in one place, in addition to a meticulously researched, fact-checked VCHA members profile page with in-depth biographical trivia for all six members.