FOURTEEN Release “Bulletproof”: Italy’s K-pop Project Across Music, RAI and Community
The anti-cyberbullying single is now available alongside its official music video. On 31 October, the group will bring its project connecting music, television and community to Lucca Comics & Games.
Can K-pop be separated from the cultural and production system that created it in South Korea?
That is one of the questions raised by FOURTEEN, a teenage girl group at the centre of an Italian-European K-pop project. Its aim is not simply to release music, but to connect songs, television, social media and live performance.
Following their summer debut with “One More Kiss”, the group returned on 23 October with “Bulletproof”. Released through Warner Music Italy, the single addresses cyberbullying and the impact of comments, judgement and online exclusion during adolescence.
“Bulletproof”: armour that does not erase vulnerability
The track combines K-pop and urban influences with an immediate chorus. Its title suggests becoming impervious to attack, but the armour described by the song is not the same as invulnerability. It means protecting one’s identity, asking for support and responding without giving up sensitivity.
'Bulletproof’ is very important to us because it speaks about something that genuinely concerns our generation. We grew up with social media and know how much a word, a comment or a judgement written behind a screen can hurt.
With this song, we want to tell people our age that they should not have to change to please others, and that they should not allow anyone to dim their light.
For us, being ‘bulletproof’ does not mean never suffering or being invincible. It means learning to believe in yourself, supporting one another and finding the strength to respond. We hope that those who listen will feel less alone and understand that together we can be stronger than any form of bullying.
The theme speaks directly to the group’s generation: FOURTEEN’s members are between thirteen and fifteen years old. The challenge will be preserving that proximity in future content without turning vulnerability into a promotional slogan.
The official “Bulletproof” music video
Directed by Alberto Meroni and produced by Inmagine SA, Joy Production and PopMusicSchool, the video moves between classrooms, outdoor spaces and neon-lit settings. FOURTEEN’s performance gradually draws in other teenagers before becoming a collective choreography.
Dance becomes the language through which the video translates the song’s message: standing together and creating a space where nobody has to face bullying alone.
Who are FOURTEEN?
The group’s name comes from the members’ average age when it was formed:
Viola - Viola Scalzo, 13, from Biella
Deegee - Sofia Di Giamberardino, 14, from Rome
Cahaya - Cahaya Lovisa Kabuhung, 14, from Barcelona, with Swedish and Indonesian heritage
Sofy - Sofia Peleggi, 15, from Rome
They were selected through auditions in Naples, Milan and Rome. According to the production team, more than 5,000 candidates took part. The process assessed singing, dance, acting, freestyle, stage presence and content creation.
Paolo Meneguzzi oversees the artistic direction, Mauro Marchese is responsible for choreography, and the project is developed by Joy Production and Fourteen Group. Swedish songwriters and producers Andreas Carlsson and Erik Lidbom are also part of the music team.
From the K-pop model to a RAI series
Calling FOURTEEN a K-pop group does not mean the project comes from the Korean industry. It was created in Italy and reinterprets some elements of that model: multidisciplinary training, choreography, a strong visual identity, serial storytelling and an ongoing relationship with fandom.
That logic will extend into an original series planned for 2027 on V/BE, Rai Kids’ project for viewers aged ten to fourteen. Music, television and social media are expected to tell different parts of the same journey.
The experiment will be convincing if it can preserve a clear boundary between the real identities of four very young performers, their public personas and the project’s promotional needs.
FOURTEEN at Lucca Comics & Games
On 31 October, FOURTEEN will perform at 3:30 p.m. on the Main Stage at Lucca Comics & Games and meet the project’s audience for the first time. The choice is consistent with an identity built across music, television, gaming, cosplay and fandom.
It will also be the group’s first live test. FOURTEEN’s future will depend on the quality of future songs, the members’ development and the ability to involve the community without treating it simply as an audience to be converted into numbers.
“Bulletproof” provides a first theme around which to build that relationship.
If the project maintains this proximity without turning it into a formula, FOURTEEN may show not simply an Italian copy of K-pop, but what happens when the model is adapted by a new European scene.
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