Sophia Michaels
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“XO, Kitty” — the sequel series to the “To All the Boys I Loved Before” films — follows Kitty (Anna Cathcart) as she spends her junior year of high school in South Korea, getting into all sorts of hijinks, romantic and otherwise. Naturally, the show’s soundtrack features some iconic K-pop tracks, and the cast opened up to POPSUGAR about which songs are their personal favorites.
Cathcart says “Zoom” by Jessi “is a song that we as a cast love so much.” She explains, “It is, like, the hypest song ever. It’s definitely a blast-in-the-car song.” Jessi — who’s more of a K-rap star than K-pop — released the song in 2022.
Gia Kim, who plays Yuri, then says, “BigBang is, for me, my height of K-pop obsession.” The K-pop group debuted in 2006, went on hiatus in 2018, and returned in 2022. The “XO, Kitty” star also shares that she’s a big fan of the girl group 2NE1, who disbanded in 2016 but reunited at Coachella in 2022.
Anthony Keyvan, who plays Q in the series, likes the girl group Fifty Fifty. “They’re an independent K-pop group, like they’re not with one of those big companies,” he explains. “They’ve got a bunch of popular songs that are all over TikTok.” In fact, their song “Cupid” just hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Global Excl. US chart. They’re the first K-pop group and first all-women group of any genre to reach No. 1 with their debut entry, per Billboard.
Cathcart, who’s Canadian, and Keyvan, who’s American, also tell POPSUGAR about some of the parts of Korean teen culture they find most surprising. “Koreans have the best style,” Keyvan says. “When I was in high school, I would roll out of bed in sweats. They really care about their appearance.” Cathcart jokes that everyone looks “super amazing” just to go grocery shopping, and sometimes she felt a little out of place when she was dressed more casually.
Watch the video above to see what else the “XO, Kitty” cast had to say about the series and their time filming in South Korea.
