KATSEYE have finally made their TouchDown in the Philippines.

Ahead of their packed schedule of performances around the Metro, the multinational girl group invited select media outlets for an exclusive press conference upon their arrival in the country. Despite coming straight from the airport out of the South Korean leg of their tour, Lara, Daniela, Manon, Megan, Yoonchae, and Sophia graced the press with their fresh nature, talking to us about how it feels to be in the Philippines for the very first time.

“It’s amazing, it doesn’t feel real,” says Daniela. “Like I’m still questioning, ‘am I really here?’ We’re so, so happy to be here, and it’s all our first times to be here,” she adds — to which Sophia immediately quips, “It’s my first time too,” eliciting laughs from everyone in attendance.

“It’s been so cool, and already we’ve been receiving so much love, so thank you guys so, so much” Megan mentions. “We really feel the warmth from everyone here, and when Sophia saw her mom, we all started crying! We’re just so happy to be here,” Lara adds.

Sophia, as both the leader and designated tour guide of the group, jokingly mentions how she already pointed out a number of places from the airport to the press con. “I told them about all the places we passed by, like ‘oh my God that’s my favorite Chinese restaurant, this is where I when I wanna do parkour, or I go jet skiing here,'” she points out. Yet beyond that, she also mentions how the group is most excited to come over to her family’s place, given that her mother and the rest of her family have prepared a giant fiesta that is filled with Filipino food for the group to try.

As the group answers queries regarding the release of their EP, SIS (Soft Is Strong) and their favorite tracks on the record, the crowd notes how the majority of Sophia’s responses could be answered from a Miss Universe pageant. “We always say that she should [join Miss Universe],” Lara jokes.

“I feel like being a leader of KATSEYE is such an honor. I love and care for these girls so much, and so I feel like because of that, and knowing that they trust me and I feel mutual respect and care from them, it makes the job of being a leader a lot easier and less stressful than I feel like I anticipated. And so the leader position definitely becomes a lot easier because of them,” Sophia mentions.

“Sophia is the best leader ever! She always takes care of us and makes sure that we’re doing okay, and whenever we’re upset and frustrated with something, she always comes in to help us.” Daniela notes. “I feel like she’s our comfort person for sure, and definitely — like you are the mom of the group. But you also are like cool. You’re so non-judgmental always, and I feel like if we need help with anything, we can trust her and go to her and she’s always going to be there to help,” Lara further adds.

With the question posed about their shared dreams for the future, the group mentions their dreams of winning a Grammy award, a VMA, and the opportunity to perform at Coachella as headliners. However, when the moment comes, Manon notes that they probably won’t know how to react. “I feel like we’re all just going to cry on stage and like fully bawl!” she says, to which her fellow members agree. “We’re going to forget about the speech,” Sophia adds — to which Manon responds, “Though I bet Sophia will come up with something really smart and save us all.”

“I feel like one of the first people we’d wanna thank are our EYEKONS. I feel like any award we’d ever get, we wouldn’t have it without the EYEKONS. We wouldn’t be here on this stage or even in a girl group without them,” Sophia adds.

As they respond to the news of the ascent of “Touch” up the Billboard Philippines Hot 100 chart, Sophia elaborates upon why she thinks the track is doing well here in the country. “I feel like “Touch” resonates with people a lot of it comes from its sound, the choreography, and just how we put into it, and the attention behind it. We’re so, so grateful and so happy that people are resonating with the song — so every time we see it on our TikTok or our Instagram we send each other endless links in our group chat of people doing covers, and public covers — which is really cool. So just reaching this audience, given that it is home base, it’s really warm to my heart.”

The group talks about the other language variations of “Touch” — including a Korean and Filipino version which Sophia had a hand in translating. “The team messaged me, and said ‘Sophia, we want you to write a Tagalog translation for “Touch.”‘ We kind of wanted to keep the “Touch, touch, touch” and the “much, much, much” for the English at the end. So okay, I’ll make it Taglish, so it sounds kinda coño with a direct translation pa — so it’s kind of funny,” Sophia mentions, before giving the crowd a sample of the Tagalog rendition.

“I was like, do I want to make it super Filipino — like Moira Dela Torre vibes? But then I was like, I’m just gonna talk like me!” she concludes.

They continue talking about “Touch” and their favorite videos of the track, mentioning Niana Guerrero and her younger sister’s covers of the song, alongside Megan’s ‘Phineas and Ferb’ version of the song. “It took me so long to do that, so I’m glad that people actually liked that,” Megan jokes.

“I liked mine because I did mine with the dog which I think was so cute,” Yoonchae states. “Another one that is very memorable is when I see a lot of EYEKONS cover “Touch,” and I see these street covers of the whole performance and seeing fancams of the EYEKONS doing the dance. And we send it on our group chat every day, especially when kids do the dance. It really touches our hearts so, so much, and it’s like wow, we’re reaching everyone and it makes our hearts feel so warm,” Megan adds.

She also shares a recent memory with Lara, wherein the duo ran into a fan and watched a video of her dance cover to “Touch.”  “We watched the whole thing with her and it was so cool. And I was like ‘wow, this is crazy,’ like the world is so small. I feel so crazy that we’re able to meet them and see what they’re doing,” she said.

Yet beyond the plethora of dance covers to the track, Lara notes how she finds herself most amused with the variety of singing versions of the track online. “A lot of people I’ve been seeing have been doing their own spin of “Touch” like they’ve been producing their own track to it and kind of redoing it, which is so fire. Like, the EYEKONS are so talented! They all can sing, it’s awesome to see.”

Given their jet-setting nature with their life on tour, the girls of KATSEYE note how they always keep in mind to learn the basics of the language to every country they visit. While they’ve learned how to say “Salamat” (thank you) from Sophia, they also bring up a special anecdote of their now-favorite Filipino word, “nakakapagpabagabag.”

“There was one-time Yoonchae and I were back in LA, we were in the car. And I was like, ‘Yoonchae, can you say ‘nakakapagpabagabag?’ And she said it really well! A bunch of Filipinos I know can’t even say the word, but she could do it!” Sophia mentioned. With the crowd begging for a sample, Yoonchae did her best to say the word in one go — accurately saying it on her second try. She

But of course, what Tagalog lesson would it be without the traditional “Mahal ko kayo,” which Megan and Manon endearingly told the audience as the press conference concluded.

Listen to KATSEYE’s debut EP, SIS (Soft Is Strong), below: