“I never had an Indian pop star that I could look up to in Western music. I always knew that if I wanted that, I have to be that for the little girl inside of me,” member Lara Raj said in a new YouTube documentary.
Sophia Laforteza, Yoonchae, Lara Raj, Daniela Avanzini and Megan Skiendiel of KATSEYE at Coachella 2026. Photo: Photo by Christopher Polk/Billboard via Getty Images
Two months after taking Coachella by storm, global girl group Katseye revisit what they describe as a “career-defining” moment in new documentary series Arrival.
Through behind-the-scenes glimpses of what went into the making of their Coachella set, members Yoonchae, Daniela Avanzini, Sophia Laforteza, Lara Raj, and Megan Skiendiel reflect on the underlying pressure, preparation, and mounting expectations they faced, especially for a stage this massive.
“There’s literally no blueprint — each one of us represents something so different, and when we come together it’s just like BAM, all these fun flavours,” Katseye member Daniela said as the group sat down for an interview. For Lara Raj, the Indian member of the group, success was also about representation. Looking back on her childhood, she reflects, “I never had an Indian pop star that I could look up to in Western music. I always knew that if I wanted that, I have to be that for the little girl inside of me.”
In the series produced in partnership with Marriott Bonvoy and MGX Creative, the ensemble also opened up about their exponential rise in the industry, from making their Super Bowl commercial debut to teasing new music on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. “We’ve only been doing this for two years. We’ve had to learn faster than a lot of people and grow up a lot quicker than we expected. It feels like a risk to try something new so soon. For Coachella, we’re debuting this new era.” They added that it’s something people would either love or hate, but that it was a gamble worth taking.
The pop group also spoke about what it meant to perform at Coachella, a milestone they had envisioned since the very beginning. “Right after we formed as Katseye, we went to Coachella. It was such a wide-eyed moment for all of us. Ever since that time, we would dream of doing Coachella—we would talk about it every day,” they shared.
For the members, returning to the festival as performers rather than attendees felt almost surreal. “To get to do Coachella… it feels revolutionary. Coachella is just another level. To do Coachella only two years after we just started is insane.”
However, with the anticipation came the pressure of perfection; the pop group shared, “Every decision that we make, it has to be the perfect decision. There’s no margin for error. They have to put on their biggest and best show. And I expect nothing less. The hours of rehearsal, the blood, the sweat, the tears, the bruises — and all those days where we were just going insane in the rehearsal room, pushing ourselves.” But the thrill of standing on stage in front of a crowd flooded with super fans from across the world outweighs it all: “On stage, we get to fully be ourselves in so many different ways — where we come from, how we look, our personalities. The purpose of Katseye is to represent and to let people find themselves in us — to give the fans something that’s special and makes them feel seen,” the group adds.