K-pop Group IVE Teases August Comeback at SBS Summer Festival
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| IVE / Courtesy of Instagram |
At the 2025 SBS Gayo Daejeon Summer festival, South Korean girl group IVE surprised fans with previews of unreleased material ahead of their highly anticipated August comeback. The six-member outfit — Ahn Yu-jin, Ga-eul, Lay, Jang Won-young, Liz, and Lee Seo — performed a live-streamed special event on July 26 and unleashed unreleased music, which ignited a commotion on social media. The performance was planned for the group's return to the spotlight after enjoying a circuit of festivals, including Lollapalooza Berlin and Lollapalooza Paris.
IVE teases their comeback during their recent performance.pic.twitter.com/051dumwieW
— About Music (@AboutMusicYT) July 26, 2025
The night started with IVE performing "REBEL HEART," their January pre-release single, before transitioning into the surprise reveal, embodied on a LED screen that read "SECRET." This was an unexpected preview of a future release in August, with fans given a short snippet of the new music and choreography that inspired, but did not directly welcome, responses from fans with social media being flooded by the short preview. The group leader Ahn Yu-jin was the event's MC and took advantage of her role as host by giving fans extra choreography segments, advising that she was exercising her "special authority" as the presenter to provide fans with extra content.
IVE finished their set with "ATTITUDE," the title song off their third mini-album "IVE EMPATHY," while member Liz enjoyed her praise for her collaborative performance with band Jannabi. IVE's recent releases have had great commercial value, as "REBEL HEART" and "ATTITUDE" combined, had 15 wins on music shows and have strong positions on domestic streaming charts. Notably, this performance somewhat mirrored their performances from the 2024 festival, wherein they also showcased "REBEL HEART" to an enthusiastic audience, providing a sense of pattern in where they state they always use an annual event to use their brand through their promotional reveals aspect.
The comeback in August shows IVE's further expansion in an already crowded K-Pop marketplace, on the heels of continued domestic and international notoriety. Recent festival circuit appearances throughout Europe confirm their growth in the global climate; at the same time, their current chart success shows their continued domestic popularity. Notably, Ahn Yu-jin's four-year role as MC for Gayo Daejeon provided IVE with a rare promotional opportunity to remain in the limelight during their downtimes between major releases.