Final 10 chosen for global girl group project “The Debut: Dream Academy”

The final 10 candidates for HYBE and Geffen Records' global girl group project, "The Debut: Dream Academy," have been chosen through fan votes.

HYBE and Geffen Records’ global girl group project, “The Debut: Dream Academy”s final 10 candidates have been decided [HYBE]

The final 10 candidates of HYBE and Geffen Records’ global girl group project, “The Debut: Dream Academy” have been decided.

Sophia from the Philippines secured the No.1 spot and Lara from the United States came in second. They earned “tickets,” as they are referred to in the show, to perform on “The Debut: Dream Academy — Live Finale stage.” Their results were wholly determined by the fan’s votes.

Sophia secured first place for the second consecutive time following her third mission, while Lara, who started off in fifth place in the first mission, showed consistent improvement and clinched the second place in the third mission.

The eight remaining tickets to perform on the finale were earned by Ezrela from Australia (4th place), Daniela from the United States (5th place), Emily from the United States (7th place), Samara from Brazil (8th place), Manon from Switzerland (9th place), Marquise from Thailand (10th place), Megan from the United States (11th place) and Yoonchae from Korea (12th place). The recipients of the eight tickets were determined through fan votes and expert evaluation, according to the press release.

Among the 13 participants, Celeste from Argentina, Ua from Japan and Nayoung from Korea did not make it to the finals.

Ten candidates will be on stage for the finale, held in Los Angeles, U.S., on Nov. 18 at 12 p.m. (Pacific Standard Time). The finale will be aired worldwide on HYBE’s YouTube account, Japan’s OTT platform ABEMA and fan community platform Weverse.

Final members to debut will be announced at the finale.

“The Debut: Dream Academy” is the agency’s first audition program produced in partnership with a U.S. company. The project is hosted by HYBE and Geffen Records (HxG), a joint venture between the K-pop powerhouse and the Universal Music Group (UMG) subsidiary.

BY LEE CHAE-MIN [lee.chaemin1@joongang.co.kr]