As absurd and contradictory it may be, some dream Kpop collaborations are such a far-fetched fantasy indeed due to artists signing contracts with different companies. While it may seem like an easier line to cross over with western or other international collaborations, bringing one K-pop group (or soloist) under the same roof as another (unless they share the same label) is possibly one of the most difficult tasks, which ultimately becomes an even more frustrating ordeal for fans who mutually love and admire more than one group (or artist) across entertainment labels.

Yet, we’ve still witnessed some special collaboration stages during year-end award ceremonies and other events that have made room for great names to share the same spotlight equally. However, official and studio versions of those tracks are again a rare gem. Regardless of all these tiring complications, nothing can stop K-pop fans from conjuring up their own set of dream partnerships. Here are some of mine.

Some Dream Kpop Collaborations That Would Break the Internet

BTS Suga – SEVENTEEN Woozi

Suchwita Episode 10 finally united the “long lost brothers” and left each one of them in awe of how much they look alike in addition to the alignment of many of their personality traits as well. Even they acknowledge the reality at this point and know well enough that if they were to put their heads together for a single track, the catastrophic blow would result in something both their fandoms would bless them for. Now that they’re basically colleagues under the same entertainment label, the chances of this happening have reached their pinnacle. Looking forward to the day the two producing maestros make music together!

NCT Ten, Taeyong and Jisung

When you’re a member of a group as huge as SM Entertainment’s NCT, joining hands with even your fellow members seems like a far-fetched dream. While Ten (WayV) and Lee Taeyong (NCT 127) have already showcased their main dancer chops with their NCT U single Baby Don’t Stop, a song that still shakes up NCTzens, if their small special unit ends up including Park Jisung, yet another main dancer of the group (NCT Dream), there are high chances of the stage being set on fire.

During the NCT 2020 promotions, Jisung and Ten were put in the same Work It unit, but due to the younger member’s injury, he had to sit out their dance routines. Yet another missed opportunity to catch Ten and Jisung’s mesmerising dance techniques together. The trio sat down together for a live broadcast quite a few years ago, and the adorable exchange of Taeyong and Ten babying Jisung has been stuck in my mind ever since. We need more of this magically hypnotic dancing line together!

BTS Jungkook – BLACKPINK Lisa

This one doesn’t even need a discussion. Every K-pop fan, whether they’re into either groups’ music or not, knows that if these two artists were to cross paths, that would simply end everything.

Lee Youngji – NCT Mark Lee

Being a South Korean rapper herself, Lee Youngji shot to fame after winning High School Rapper 3 and Show Me the Money 11. She further garnered more fans with her YouTube variety talk show No Prepare, where she’s even mentioned how big of a fan she is of NCT and SEVENTEEN. While in a surprise feature, she bagged the golden to opportunity to spit fire with SEVENTEEN’s special sub-unit BSS in the song Fighting, her dream of performing with NCT’s Mark hasn’t officially been realised yet.

During NCT 127’s 2 Baddies promotions, she did come along with two of the group members who also happen to be her biases – Mark and Jaehyun. As dreamy this moment may have been for her, nothing could compare to the dream collaboration between her and Mark, especially since both artists are renowned for their rapping skills. This is one such duet that I never thought I needed until I saw the possibility of it happening, and now I can’t stop thinking about it till it manifests itself in reality.

MAMAMOO Hwa Sa – Jessi – Hyolyn

Hwa Sa and Jessie have previously come together on more than one occasion – once for the the MAMA 2023 special stage performance and the other time as fellow members of the seasonal supergroup – Refund Sisters – formed on the MBC variety show Hangout with Yoo (they were joined by Uhm Jung-hwa and Lee Hyori as well). So, we’ve already seen them concoct magic on stage before, but if they were to join forces with Hyolyn (former member of SISTAR) in the future, they would definitely bring the house down. We as an audience won’t know how to handle the overload of their alluring and oozing confidence all at once, but would still acknowledge it as a blessing all the same.

The 97 Liner Squad

K-pop land has numerous squads that completely deflect the belief that we can “never see two pretty best friends”. The 97 Liners squad is a group of K-pop artists, all having been born in the same year i.e. 1997, and it includes BTS Jungkook, SEVENTEEN Mingyu, The8, DK, NCT Jaehyun, ASTRO Cha Eunwoo, GOT7 BamBam and Yugyeom. While we may not have seen all of them in a single picture together, the members of the same-year-friend group have often revealed how they’ve even formed a chat group, and this news’ revelation was enough to make people go crazy.

Also read: Kpop Comebacks in June 2023: Stray Kids, NCT Taeyong’s Solo Debut, fromis_9 and More

Whether you’re a fan of either of their respective K-pop groups or not, there’s no chance of one not knowing about them (even if you’re a casual K-pop fan). Even mere pictures of them together popping up intermittently have broken the internet, so one can only imagine what will happen if they were to ever take to the stage together as a supergroup.

ATEEZ – Stray Kids

ATEEZ and Stray Kids are both representatives of the 4th Generation of K-pop, and they first got close to each other (along with BTOB during Mnet’s 2021 Kingdom: Legendary War broadcast. Round 3 of the reality competition program allowed members across the groups to interact with each other. ATEEZ’s Hongjoong and Stray Kids’ Bang Chan, Changbin, and Han came together as part of the Mayfly rap unit, while Lee Know, Felix, I.N (Stray Kids) and Wooyoung, San, Yunho, Yeosang, Seonghwa (ATEEZ) joined hands for the Mayfly dance unit performance. Lastly, The Mayfly vocal unit allowed Jongho (ATEEZ) and Seungmin (Stray Kids) to bond with each other.

Given the circumstances, despite these special unit stages, the teams were still competing against each other in the long run. Yet since they did form some friendships along the way, it would be an interesting plot twist to now see the groups come back for a friendly reunion. With both their music sharing the common traits of offbeat, gritty, heavy and dark tones, it would be all the more startling to see what the resulting product would sound like.

The Chae Sisters: ITZY Chaeryoung and IZ*ONE Chaeyeon

aespa – MONSTA X Joohoney

If aespa has a million fans, then you may be one of them. If aespa has only one fan, then you can never be that one, because MONSTA X’s Joohoney will overtake all your chances of being the last standing MY (fandom name) on Earth. When the SM Entertainment girl group’s recent comeback promotion coincided with Joohoney’s MC schedule for M Countdown, the MONSTA X member (also lightheartedly known as the “fifth member of aespa) came together with Giselle and Winter for their Spicy dance challenge and made his MY dreams come true.

The ’94 line rapper has basically been advocating for aespa since their debut and his rendition of the Next Level choreography has only further gained more attention of the general public. If the MONSTA X rapper/producer/ lyricist (and more) were to officially join forces with one of his favourite Kpop bands in the biz, it would be a bombastically explosive combination and we wouldn’t know what hit us.

What are some of your dream combinations in K-pop? Who would you like to see perform together? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Also read: Evergreen 3rd Generation Kpop Groups That Will Never Go Out of Style: BTS, TWICE, SEVENTEEN and More