K/DA ( ) is a virtual K-pop girl group consisting of four themed versions of League of Legends characters Ahri, Akali, Evelynn, and Kai'Sa. I-dle members Miyeon and Soyeon provide the voices of Ahri and Akali, respectively; Madison Beer voices Evelynn, and Jaira Burns voices Kai'Sa. Other artists have also voiced the characters.
K/DA was developed by Riot Games, the company behind League of Legends, and was unveiled at the 2018 League of Legends World Championship with an augmented reality live performance of their debut single, "Pop/Stars". A music video of the song uploaded to YouTube subsequently went viral, surpassing 100 million views in one month, reaching 643 million views as of September 2025, and topping Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart. In 2020, K/DA released the five-track EP All Out, which includes the pre-release single "The Baddest" and the lead single "More". In 2022, "Pop/Stars" was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), making K/DA and I-dle the first K-pop girl groups in history to achieve this milestone.
The conception of K/DA was based on Riot's expressed desire to create more musical content, with the characters chosen based on K-pop archetypes. The group was created to promote the League World Championship and to sell in-game K/DA skins of the characters in League of Legends. K/DA has subsequently achieved popularity both within and beyond the League of Legends fandom and received critical acclaim, particularly for their performance during the World Championship and the impact of gaming on the music scene.
Appearances
K/DA was unveiled in the 2018 League of Legends World Championship Opening Ceremony in Incheon on November 3, 2018, with the release of their debut single "Pop/Stars". It is a bilingual song with both K-pop and American pop influences, with vocals in English by Beer and Burns, and in both English and Korean by Soyeon and Miyeon. During the ceremony, Beer, Burns, Miyeon and Soyeon performed "Pop/Stars" on-stage, whilst augmented reality versions of the characters they voiced sang and danced alongside them. The augmented reality versions of the characters could perform acts a human could not achieve, such as Ahri flying onto the stage, whilst a human singer has "a certain raw human element" that can't yet be captured by a virtual performer.
Viranda Tantula, the creative lead on the project, wrote that "we went into this really wanting to make [the ceremony] a dope 'League' moment for players – albeit one where the fantasy of the champs being in the real world played out in an authentic manner that could live alongside others in their verticals (i.e. song had to be able to stand up to other pop songs, performance had to stand up to other performances, etc.)." The official music video for the song was released on YouTube on the same day.
According to Sebastien Najand, who composed "Pop/Stars", an all-English demo was trialled at first, followed by a version with significantly more Korean. Ultimately, Najand said that "we wanted to make it a blend of western pop and K-Pop". Patrick Morales, the creative lead behind the "Pop/Stars" music video, said that he wanted K/DA to exist "somewhere between fantasy and reality". The team was initially uncertain of the type of music that would be most suitable for the group, due to amount of variety within the pop music genre. They eventually decided against a cuter, more-idol group based theme in favour of something "modern and edgy" that combines a "bit of street style with a handcrafted feel."
In League of Legends K/DA skins of Ahri, Akali, Evelynn and Kai'Sa, depicting the characters as how they appear in the band, are available for purchase in League of Legends. Skins in the game are for cosmetic purposes only, and the K/DA skins cost 1350 RP (RP is the League of Legends in-game currency) which costs around US$10 to purchase. The Prestige skins were available by completing special missions in-game, but can now only be acquired through skin rerolls or purchased with mythic essence when they are "unvaulted". The popularity of K/DA in 2018 led Riot to release an EP consisting of five songs, new skins inspired on its artwork, and music videos in 2020.
Other appearances Similar to League of Legends, K/DA appear in the spin-off game Wild Rift as skins. It is also notable that the game received the champions the same day that the All Out skins released in October 2020.
In Legends of Runeterra, K/DA All Out was released as special board that can play 3 of their songs. Also, each member and the League of Legends champion Seraphine also appear as unique cards in the card game.
In Teamfight Tactics, for the game's 10th set Remix Rumble the roster of champions were primarily drawn from the League of Legends music-based skins, including all of the main members of K/DA as well as Seraphine. Furthermore, to supplement the group of champions with existing music skins, Riot created several new music-themed unit skins exclusively for the set. These included skins for League of Legends champions Lillia and Neeko, recasting them as "Superfans" of K/DA.
Three K/DA songs are featured on Ubisoft's Just Dance series. "Drum Go Dum" is featured in Just Dance 2021 as a free limited-time gift, and was later released to the Unlimited subscription service. The in-game routine uses some moves from the official choreography by Bailey Sok, performed by the K/DA members in their All Out outfits. For Just Dance 2022, "Pop/Stars" is featured in the main tracklist, with the coaches bearing the outfits from the original music video. "More" is featured in Just Dance 2023 Edition with two different routines, one with the coaches in their All Out outfits and the other with Seraphine in her bedroom backdrop from the original music video.
Conception and creation The name "K/DA" is an in-game term in League of Legends that refers to a player's kills, deaths, and assists. The creation of K/DA was based in part on the desire of Riot Games, Leagues developers to "see their company more as a full-fledged music label in the future". Toa Dunn, head of Riot's music division, claimed in an interview with Variety that "[K/DA] was the most involved music project we've ever done".
According to Tantula, "We believe there's a huge overlap between League of Legends, esports overall and the music industry", and as a result, they invested "in building [their] internal music team with both an artist focused creative studio full of composers, songwriters and producers, as well as people who can perform all the services that you would see at a standard music label, such as distribution, A&R and promo." Patrick Morales (creative lead behind the "Pop/Stars" music video), Janelle Jimenez (the lead designer behind the K/DA skins) and Toa Dunn (the head of the Riot Music Group) were the main creators of K/DA. The dances were choreographed by Ellen Kim, Bailey Sok, Stevie Doré and Eileen Harman. 4Minute also served as a source of inspiration behind K/DA. For singing "Pop/Stars", Madison Beer was brought on early, and Jaira Burns followed. As many at Riot were fans of (G)I-dle and liked "the attitude they brought to the song, especially the rap section", Miyeon and Soyeon were brought on as well.
The characters were chosen from League of Legends character list based on whether players would realistically see them as "popstars". According to Patrick Morales, Ahri was the first character to be chosen for K/DA, due to her previous appearances in League of Legends-related music as "Pop Star Ahri" back in 2013. Subsequently, with Ahri being a "beautiful, charming leader"-type character, Evelynn was chosen to contrast to that, by "being the wild and provocative diva of the group". As Akali's character was being reworked at the time, Morales included her into the band as he liked the "rebellious spirit" of the character. Kai'Sa was included due to a recommendation from skins lead Janelle Jimenez, as she wanted a "strong but silent loner who expressed herself on stage through her movements".
The team also wanted diversity in the characters chosen, where each character has a well-defined archetype that allows viewers to easily identify their favourite K/DA member. According to Jimenez, "Pop groups tend to have a formula where each member has their own unique personality and style. I approached this like looking at classic anime team where you have the leader, the shy one, the feisty one, etc." Furthermore, they also wanted to ensure that the characters chosen had differing roles in the game. "Pop/Stars" was written with these archetypes in mind. For example, a rap section was included in the song as Akali was envisioned to be the rapper, and the pre-chorus was designed to be sung by Ahri.
Members
The members of K/DA consist of four characters from the League of Legends video game:
Ahri (voiced by Laura Post, singing voices provided by Miyeon, Nayeon, Sana and Jihyo) is a nine-tailed fox mage in League of Legends, and one of the most popular characters in League of Legends. In lore she is a Vastaya, a chimeric race of humanoid beast creatures, in Ahri's case a fox-type of Vastaya known as Vesani. In-game, she is a mage-assassin hybrid usually played in the mid lane. Her main weapon is her orb of deception, which she can command to damage enemies and then return to her. She can also heal herself by hurting others, launch 'foxfire' missiles towards her enemies, charm enemies to immobilize them and use her ultimate ability 'Spirit Rush'; to rapidly dash up to three times. She is also well known as one of Faker's most played champions; in 2024, she was given two commemorative skins to celebrate Faker's induction into the Hall of Legends. In K/DA, Ahri serves as the leader and founder of K/DA, as well as one of the main vocalists along with Evelynn. Her All Out solo song is "I'll Show You". According to Miyeon, she started learning more about League of Legends and actually played the game as Ahri to better understand her character. Miyeon was invited to visit Riot Headquarters in 2020 along with Soyeon to play League of Legends as their represented characters and skins (Soyeon as K/DA Akali, Miyeon as K/DA Ahri). Ahri also appears as a playable character in Ruined King: A League of Legends Story. Akali (voiced by Laura Bailey and Krizia Bajos in League of Legends, voiced in K/DA interviews and promotional videos by Shannon Williams, singing voice provided by Soyeon and Chaeyoung) is a Ninja assassin character usually played in either the mid lane or top lane. In lore, Akali hails from Ionia formerly as a part of the Kinkou Order under its grandmaster Shen. After witnessing the atrocities committed by Noxus and the Kinkou's restrained response to the invasion of Ionia led to her abandoning the Order to defend her homeland in a direct fashion, becoming a rogue ninja. In game, her abilities involve creating clouds of smoke to become invisible, as well as throwing shurikens at opponents while hitting them with a kama and kunai. She is very mobile with abilities that allow her to dash rapidly and execute enemies with her ultimate. Her All Out solo song is "The Baddest". In K/DA, Akali is the main rapper of the group. Soyeon said she tried to "feel like Akali and move as if I were Akali" during the motion capture for "Pop/Stars". Akali is also a member of True Damage, another virtual group formed by League of Legends characters. Soyeon also played the game on two separate occasions; first alone on a livestream, and then a few months later with Miyeon at Riot Headquarters in 2020 as their represented characters and skins (Soyeon as K/DA Akali, Miyeon as K/DA Ahri).