ELRIS (Hangul: 엘리스) is a K-pop girl group that was formed in 2017 by Hunus Entertainment, known for developing and managing artists like Jungtune, KLANG, and ROMEO. This group ran for four years, from 2017 to 2021 with 5 members: Bella, Hyeseong, Yukyung, Sohee, and Karin.
Despite millions of streams and over 75,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, ELRIS can be difficult to find for English-speakers. Hit tracks like “Summer Dream,” “MILKY WAY,” and “DANCE ON” may elude you entirely if you don’t know where to look.
Why is this band – one composed of former K-pop Star 6 contestants – so obscure?
Well, the answer is actually pretty simple. They’re not obscure. They’re just not called ELRIS. I mean they are, but not for English speakers. Let’s explain.
Language in South Korea has a huge English influence. Many K-pop idols are at LEAST bi-lingual in order to hold interviews and sing and perform in English to reach a broader market. South Korean will also appropriate English words, but then write them in Hangul, the phonetic South Korean written language. These English words will be written in Hangul the way that South Koreans would pronounce them.
Sometimes, the Hangul version of an English word will get transliterated back into English. And that’s what’s going on here. ELRIS is actually the transliterated representation of the English name, ALICE.
So while ELRIS does appear in certain instances, if you want to stream their 3 EPs We, First, Color Crush, and Summer Dream, you’ll need to search for them as ALICE. Welcome to the wonderfully wild world of K-pop.