Pictured: Aria and Min's light sticks
The Four CARATs
SGCaratsLah!, running across Telegram, Instagram and X, coalesced in November 2024 — a group connected through Telegram, united by a shared goal of creating fan projects for Singapore CARATs. When the SEVENTEEN WORLD TOUR [NEW_] makes its way to the National Stadium at The Kallang on 7 March 2026, their project is an officially-approved set of over 36,000 fan banners being distributed to the crowd on concert night.
"It's a juggling act of incredible intensity for one," admits Aria, the team's design lead, "but a good and reliable team turns it into a performance of grace."
Pictured, left to right: Aria and Min with the 2025 [Right Here] World Tour Fan Banner
The founding members — Fiona, Keira, and Min — were strangers a year ago. Aria, 20, joined recently by pitching her design portfolio to the group; whom Min, who runs a handmade craft business, met at a fan event. The design they landed on is deliberately local: the Merlion, Marina Bay Sands, the city skyline — a piece of Singapore held up inside a stadium. Approval had to come from the official concert promoter and SEVENTEEN’s label. “This meant that they felt the design was professional enough and of high enough quality to represent SG CARATs,” says Aria.
Fiona, who handles much of the team's external communications, is candid about where the strain tends to sit. "The hardest part is communication," she says. "Everything within our team and with the concert promoter is solely via emails or Telegram chats — miscommunications can happen, delayed responses can happen." What keeps her going is watching the members' reactions on concert night.
Pictured, left to right: Min and Aria
Nobody is earning a cent from any of this. The $3,000 banner print run was made possible through donations from fellow CARATs — a generosity the team is deeply grateful for. While fan project organisers sometimes top up costs out of their own pockets, Min is quick to emphasise that this project exists because the community showed up. “We’re really thankful for every single person who contributed,” she says. “It wouldn’t have happened without them.”
Pictured, left to right: Min and Aria
A Hug From 13 People
There's something about CARAT culture that tends to stick with people who encounter it — a warmth, a lack of gatekeeping. "There's an unspoken understanding and an instant bond when you meet another CARAT," says Aria, "whether it's at a café event, or even out on the street when we recognise each other's merch. We celebrate the highs together when SEVENTEEN gets a win. We comfort each other during the lows."
Pictured: Some of Min and Aria's merch, including self-designed keychain artworks (top right)
Min, asked what being a CARAT actually feels like, lands on something that stays with you: "Something about SEVENTEEN just feels like one big enveloping hug. I guess a hug from 13 people."
The One-Woman Show
For Sheena, similar sentiments were echoed.
Pictured: Sheena with her SEVENTEEN light stick and BONGBONGIE bag
A new job transition took her briefly to Berlin for a business trip. It was her first day of work. She did not know a single colleague. "I needed SEVENTEEN to help me get through this," she says. "I brought a lot of my comfort items over to Berlin." As it happened, SEVENTEEN had also been in Berlin around the same time, for Lollapalooza. On her days off, Sheena retraced their steps with her new colleagues. "I wanted to eat what they ate," she says. "It was a very comforting moment for me.”
In that moment, it became clear - SEVENTEEN was a source of comfort for Sheena, just as much as it was for Min and the SGCaratsLah! team.
Pictured: Sheena
Today, she runs SEVENTEEN CARAT SINGAPORE, a brainchild that she started in June 2024, which now spans across Telegram, Instagram, and X, with a combined total of 5,000 followers and growing. She calls it a fan page; for Singapore's CARATs — SEVENTEEN's fandom — it functions as an invaluable intel. Streaming guides. Voting tutorials. Comeback coordination — timings converted from Korea Standard Time so no one else has to do the mental gymnastics.
Every day, X like a newspaper — teasers, announcements, updates. The Telegram cross-posts, the one consolidated comeback post, the shareable concert guide: it all just follows. "I'm only one person — whatever I can share with everyone, I'll try my best."
Pictured: Some of Sheena's merch collection
Showing Up
Casual listeners might not know: in K-pop fandom, listening is the floor, not the ceiling. Streaming isn't passive — it spans Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and platforms like Stationhead, where fan accounts run communal radio feeds that push the numbers up automatically. Voting is something else entirely: dedicated apps, comeback-specific token systems, fan-published tutorials so no one has to figure it out from scratch. Some tokens have to be earned by watching advertisements. "It's really very long," Sheena says. "The whole process." But the stakes are real — chart positions, award show wins, grand prizes. "Streaming and voting is very important — it determines the numbers they are getting."
Sheena tries to make it welcoming rather than overwhelming. "Once you feel pressurised to do it, you'll stop wanting to continue streaming and voting," she says. "That's why the fanbase is structured so that everyone knows — you're not alone."
Pictured: Sheena showing screenshots of SEVENTEEN on the Singapore's artist chart
The payoff, when it arrives, is shared. After SEVENTEEN's last Singapore concert, the group claimed the number one spot on Spotify Singapore — becoming only the second Korean male act in history to reach that milestone; and also marks SEVENTEEN’s first-ever number one ranking on an artist chart in any country. “Singapore is the one that did it," Sheena says, with quiet pride. "Once SEVENTEEN sees this, they'll know Singapore is also there.”
Near the end of the conversation, Sheena brings up the fan banner project by SGCaratsLah!. Though she has no involvement, she quips, "I'm so happy that someone is doing it." Here, we find no ego, no territory marked. Just a shared love for SEVENTEEN and the passion driving these individuals' own projects, all filling the gaps within the fandom in their own tangible, memorable ways.
Pictured: Sheena
SEVENTEEN, Back in Singapore
SEVENTEEN WORLD TOUR [NEW_] is happening at the National Stadium The Kallang, on 7 March 2026. Limited tickets are still available here. Get ready for a night of powerful performances, stunning visuals and heartfelt moments, all in one electrifying spectacle!
