'Queendom: Puzzle' reveals remaining 13 competitors

The two final subunits, DROP The Beat and Athena revealed on Thursday for Mnet's idol competition program ″Queendom Puzzle″ [MNET]

The remaining 13 singers and girl group members who will participate in the upcoming idol competition show “Queendom: Puzzle” have been revealed.

There will be subunit DROP The Beat, which includes JooE, formerly a member of girl group Momoland, Yeonhee and Sooyoon from Rocket Punch, Soojin and Zoa from Weeekly and Seoyeon from girl group tripleS. There will also be subunit Athena, which includes Elly of Weki Meki, Juri from Rocket Punch, Hwiseo from H1-KEY. Then four solo artists: Kei, formerly a member of Lovelyz, Dohwa, also known by her former name Chanmi of girl group AOA, Miru, former member of the Japanese girl group NMB48 and Fye, former member of the Thai girl group BNK48.

DROP The Beat sang “Charismatic,” the same as subunit PICK the TOP, while Athena performed “SNAP,” the same track that PICK-CAT performed.

The way these four initial subunits compete will be revealed on the show, according to Mnet.

The two singers, Lee Chae-yeon, formerly from project girl group IZ*ONE and Haein, formerly a member of girl group Laboum, who reportedly dropped out from the show midway, was not featured on the final lineup.

"Queendom: Puzzle," the third entry in Mnet's "Queendom" series of idol competition shows, features girl groups and artists who compete by releasing songs at the same time.

While the previous seasons saw entire girl groups or solo artists competing with each other, "Queendom: Puzzle" will feature girl group members and solo artists who form different subunits "like a puzzle" throughout the show, and then finally compete for a spot in a project girl group that Mnet will debut after the final episode. "Queendom" (2019) featured girl groups such as Lovelyz, Mamamoo and (G) -DILE, and "Queendom 2" (2022) featured girl groups including Kep1er, Viviz, Loona and WJSN.

Taeyeon from Girls' Generation will host the show.

Mnet also made counterpart shows for boy groups, "Road to Kingdom" (2020) and "Kingdom" (2021).

“Queendom: Puzzle” will air its first episode on June 13.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]