Girl group EMPRESS wants to you know they are – in their words – “queens of queens”.
The group, which was formed in late-2023, comprises members ‘Belle’ Itsaree, ‘Carys’ Jane, ‘Jackpot’ Athicha, ‘Natt’ Natthacha, ‘Tawan’ Parunyu, and ‘Tonkhao’ Pirada. They are part of Rising Entertainment, founded by singer-actor Chin Chinawut.
Their uber-catchy debut track Blah Blah Blah has won acclaim for its distinctive beat – inspired by Brazilian funk – and use of rap.
Its popularity also meant the group was already finding new fans – many of them international and listening to T-Pop for the first time – at their debut.
Now EMPRESS have just released Too L8, their follow-up single that is also gaining chart momentum, and are working to release more new music.
ChaPop speaks to the six-member group to find out how they came about, and how they intend to become T-Pop royalty.
How did the group come about?
Tonkhao: Some of us – Jackpot, Carys, Tawan and myself – had the opportunity to work with P’Chin through a competition called 2 Be Number 1.
Tawan: Then he told us he wanted to do a girl group and we were personally chosen by him for the project. So we are all here because of him.
Carys: I’m really lucky and happy that I’m one of the chosen ones. Haha
Natt: For me, P’Chin and I worked on 2 musical theatre productions together. He was actually talking to me about this project for almost 2 years before it actually happened. When he asked, I said yes right away!
Belle: My story was a little different. P’Chin actually contacted me through a dancer friend of his and said that he was working on a girl group project and wanted me to be part of the project. Of course, I immediately said yes.
Jackpot: We are so lucky to get to know P’Chin. He created this whole project and brought us together.
What was the inspiration for the name ‘EMPRESS’?
Jackpot: We actually came up with a lot of names for the group. But because all the members are soooo into horoscopes and fortune tellers…
Natt: …especially tarot cards. So we looked into the meaning of each card and we found THE EMPRESS
Carys: “Empress” seems like the perfect name for us, both the meaning of the word and the meaning behind the tarot card. So we decided on “EMPRESS”. Because all 6 of us look at each other as queen of queens.
Tonkhao: So Empress really feels like it suits us the most.
Tawan: Because we’re “EMPRESSes”.
Belle: YES WE ARE!
Talk about your debut single Blah Blah Blah what was the inspiration behind it?
Jackpot: We actually got the inspiration from cyberbullying. Nowadays people receive a lot of hate speech and comments online.
Belle: So we wanted to respond to those being bullied with a message – that you don’t have to care.
Natt: It’s also a response to the bullies as well.
Tonkhao: Yep, because ‘All I can hear is Blah Blah Blah’.
Tawan: Yeah, we dont care about you!
Carys: Because no one deserves to be spoken badly. So next time just say “BLAH BLAH BLAH”
The song has gone viral, and is popular with dance groups, including overseas. How do you feel about the popularity?
Natt: Definitely not what we expected from our debut song. Hahaha
Belle: But when we saw that we had fans not only in Thailand but international fans as well, we were blown away.
Tawan: We were very excited because we didn’t think the song would be this viral. We definitely weren’t expecting this kind of response.
Carys: We are soooo happy and so grateful to all our fans.
Tonkhao: This really made us want to improve ourselves for our next single. And we PROMISE to do so.
Jackpot: Thank you EMPIRE (the group’s fandom) so much for loving Blah Blah Blah!
Are you working on more music now, and what’s next for the group?
Jackpot: Yes of course !! We just shot the music video. We are trying to be slightly different through every comeback, so our fans could see us in various styles. Our team worked really hard on this new single.
Natt: The characteristic is going to be different from Blah Blah Blah for sure. You will see another side of EMPRESS.
Tawan: Our playful yet sexy side. Haha
Belle: Definitely more spicy.
Tonkhao: I think our fans are going to like it for sure – I hope.
Jackpot: We will keep on producing amazing songs for our fans in the future.
Carys: But for now our 2nd single TOO L8 will be out on the 24th of July.
What can we expect from your new single, Too L8?
Natt: Just one word “FIRE 🔥 “
What is your favourite part about making music?
Natt: Sharing ideas and exploring new things together as a team. I write songs myself too, so I love coming up with melodies and compositions. I also helped write the pre-chorus on Blah Blah Blah and I’m super proud of that.
Carys: Definitely sharing of each other’s ideas and exploring – I really enjoy the music production process! Because we started together from scratch and also learnt a lot from this process. It made me realise how hard it is to get a really good song!
Jackpot: Music production is my favourite part. because we spend days together in the studio, with P’Chin and P’Alex (our producer SYPS), sharing ideas and trying to create melodies, beats and lyrics together. I really love those moments.
Tonkhao: I like watching P’Chin and P’Alex work together. They are crazy. Haha
Tawan: I mean I love trying new things and being in the studio with everyone is a fun new experience for me!
Belle: Actually I can’t choose because I love it all. Just an amazing journey.
There are many T-Pop girl groups now, how do you stand out from the others?
Belle: I think our music style is unique, and also our choreography. But the important thing is we are here to be part of T-Pop. We don’t want to compete with anyone.
Natt: We are here to be friends. We just wanna make T-Pop more fun and hopefully be seen by more international fans. Our first single was quite a unique type of song in the style of ‘Baile Funk or Brazilian Funk’ mixed with a mainstream pop vibe so that’s also very different from other groups in the T-Pop industry.
Tonkhao: Every T-pop group has their own unique charm. But maybe because we feel like what we’re doing hasn’t been done much in the T-pop industry, our music style, our choreography is quite different. I think that is how we stand out from others.
Jackpot: What makes EMPRESS unique might be our characters: representing strong, powerful and independent women in our own different ways. Our music style is also different from other t-pop groups as well. So maybe that’s what makes us stand out.
Tawan: I think also, we’re just ourselves and we’re really lucky that the RISING team has really given us space to explore who we are and I think that that makes us one-of-a-kind. We just hope that what we do somehow can be a part of making T-Pop better and we try to raise the standards starting by raising our own standards.
Carys: We just want to be involved in the T-pop industry. Because now T-pop is very exciting and the quality just keeps on rising. We all just want to enjoy, learn from this industry and have a place to show our abilities in our different positions. Of course, my big dream is to be in a girl group / recording artist so this it’s just the beginning. We will continue to become better EMPRESSes.
