Glitter sparks and crystal crowns, the Wingman music video by BOYS WORLD is something quite like a magical girl transformation. Newcomers to the music scene, this up-and-coming girl group are here to make their mark and stay. Drenched in pastel technicolor, their latest single asserts that even with the name BOYS WORLD, they definitely don’t need no man.
“People say it’s a man’s world or whatever,” Makhyli 17, vibrant and fierce in her light blue top and fairy-dusted hair, says.
Wonderfully neon with already two singles under their belt, the girl group was formed by KYN Entertainment –founded by Sonny Takhar, former president of Simon Cowell’s Syco Music. BOYS WORLD is composed of five especially talented individuals; all of them bursting with as much personality and flair as they are with style. They line up neatly in front of the camera for the Zoom interview. There’s Queenie 19, from the Philippines with the affinity for alternative music; Olivia 20, the mom of the group and a big boy band fan; Elana 18, who sits with grace and flounce, and is always on-trend; Lillian 19, with a penchant for the dark and edgy colors; and of course, Makhyli, the youngest of the girls with no qualms for breaking limits.
BOYS WORLD deconstructs the typical perception of girl groups. More than just a spectrum of colors and vocal tones, they’re individuals first with stories of their own. The name, an acronym for ‘best of yourself’, carries well the theme they aim to spread with their content. “BOYS WORLD, you look at us and you think—wow, a group of girls! But that’s the thing that we want to do to people,” Makhyli teases, extravagant with her hand gestures. “We just want the name to be so polarizing and so encapsulating, and really representative. And also, the ‘world’ part is like the whole world. We’re from different parts of the world, we want to reach different parts of the world—why not?”
It all started with a DM on Instagram, so the story goes.Resources and opportunities are readily available nowadays because of the online landscape. Obviously, taking chances is the make of the music industry. But with the internet especially, safety is a concern. Queenie,who came before the rest of the girls, sits up front in asilky pink jacket and ponders over the initial proposal. “It took me like a month and a half to even reply because of my worry that I’m going to get kidnapped, and my family’s never going to see,” she explains. “But I think, at the end of the day, we all just had this gut feeling in us.”
“We hopped on a phone call, made sure it was legit, then tried to do a bit of research,” Makhyli interjects. Not only diverse in make-up, their experiences and what they represent differ as well. From their early journey of sharing a room and bunk beds to the uncertainty of whether or not they’ll get along, one thing remains certain: not like the other, but equally as valid as each other. “It’s actually a joke in the fandom because Lillian and I…our lives were so different and I didn’t know if we’d like each other,” Elana explains while Lillian adds, “We just misunderstood each other completely!”
“We all have our own stories but for some reason, we all had the same gut feeling. I think this is meant for us and we really want to be here,” Queenie insists. And their own stories they tell, each unique from their musical preference, down to their individual styles. Dressing up as the Winx Club on TikTok, just after the initial release of Wingman, they flounce diversity and garish fashion. It begs the question of whether or not we’ll see them replicate all their other favorite girl groups in due time. From Makhyli and her love for Barbie Life and the Dreamhouse; Lillian and Elana’s Cheetah Girlsobsession; Olivia’s collection of Strawberry Shortcake and Friends’ dolls; and Queenie’s nostalgic preference in Totally Spies.
BOYS WORLD also diversifies with endless layers of inclusivity – from their varying backgrounds to incorporating culture and language into their work. They made this abundantly clear right from the very start. Their first music video for their debut single Girlfriends was a showcase of languages; Queenie spoke Tagalog as a nod to her Filipino roots, and Makhyli even used sign language. Further than that, they continue to learn ways of normalizing diversity concepts. According to Queenie,“We may not know right now how to be [even more] inclusive in our future songs. But I feel like it’s a journey for us to learn. Our fans give us ideas sometimes too!”
A representation for the ages, BOYS WORLD hopes to captivate people of not just their age bracket, but of everyone within the vicinity, younger or older. While that may be a tough feat considering the generational gap, their passion for music drives them, with the wide reach of the internet firmly backing them up. It helps that there’s someone within the group for everyone. Whether it be Makhyli, a ball of vibrant sunshine donning all the colors; Lillian who may sometimes “dress like a little boy”; Elana with enough versatility to exude feminine grace and street style swag; Olivia whose style she describes as “editorial, quirky, thrift store, the eighties, London chic vibes”; or Queenie with her Jordans and sweats, low crop tops, and sporty street baggy clothes.
Their future sparks bright, and they have plenty of plans to put in place. In asking them what other genres they might like to add to the BOYS WORLD sound, they have a lot to excitedly say—from opera and folk, something kooky and funk, hip hop and rap, hardcore rock, down to a good ballad drowned by a live orchestra. They even want to incorporate real-world sound effects into their tracks someday; “Something random like a splash of water,” Makhyli comments as Elana adds, “Olivia Rodrigo did it in her drivers license with her mom’s car. Just like that!” Even more than just that, they’re always thinking about what they can do for now. From new projects to virtual live shows, and maybe hopefully, one day—just meet their fans when the time is right.
