As the girl group that SM launched at the end of 2020 with attractive profile pictures and great pre-debut achievements, aespa is expected to achieve success.
Who is aespa?
On October 25, 2020, SM Entertainment announced that they would debut a new girl group called aespa. The group name is a combination of the English words “avatar”, “experience” and “aspect”. This is SM’s new girl group that was expected to follow in the footsteps of successful seniors like SNSD, F(x), and Red Velvet.
Biographies of aespa members:
Winter:
- Real name: Kim Minjeong
- Date of birth: 01/01/2001
- Zodiac: Aquarius
- Height: 1m65
- Blood type A
- Nationality: Korea
Winter is the first introduced member in the group and is praised by netizens for looking like Taeyeon (SNSD).
Karina
- Real name: Yoo Jimin
- Date of birth: April 11, 2000
- Zodiac: Aries
- Height: 1m67
- Nationality: Korean
Before debuting, Yoo Jimin (Karina) was favored by the management company to participate in the MV, perform on stage with Taemin (Shinee). However, her debut with aespa was turbulent as Karina faced baseless rumors.
In particular, Karina once came under fire for so-called “leaked conversations” between her and a friend, where she allegedly criticized SM Entertainment and slammed groups like NCT, Exo and even BTS. However, due to the lack of evidence, the “leaked conversations” are mostly deemed groundless and perhaps even spread with malicious intentions.
NingNing
- Real name: Ning Yizhuo
- Date of birth: October 23, 2002
- Zodiac: Libra
- Height: 1m65
- Blood type: B
- Nationality: China
NingNing was introduced in the 2016 SM Rookies project. At that time, the video of a 14-year-old girl singing received many compliments from netizens. Before that, she also participated in many shows in her home country of China. NingNing is friends with some NCT members and the female idol is a big fan of Jennie (Blackpink).
Right after being announced as a member of aespa, Ningning was accused of being the manager of a fan chat group and rumored to have leaked information about SM projects. In 2018, NingNing allegedly shared information about SM’s upcoming girl group or other trainees to fans, and after becoming an official trainee, NingNing held a celebration party even though it was not allowed.
In 2020, she opened an Instagram account, upload pictures when filming the debut MV, and then delete it.
However, SM never confirmed any of the aforementioned allegations.
Giselle
- Real name: Aeri Uchinaga
- Date of birth: October 30, 2000
- Zodiac: Scorpio
- Height: 1m62
- Blood type O
- Nationality: Japan
Giselle is Japanese-Korean. It only took her about a year of training to be able to debut in aepsa’s lineup with the rest of the members. The female idol has the ability to rap and sing well. Besides being able to play musical instruments such as guitar, piano,…Giselle can also speak fluently in all 3 languages: Japanese, Korean, English, and thus is consider the “interpreter” of the group.
However, Giselle also faced baseless accusations upon debut. Since she was a child, the female idol lived and studied in the US, so after her debut, she was maliciously accused of smoking and drinking while underage.
Also, Giselle has an amazing background family. She used to study at a prestigious and expensive international school called International School of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo. Giselle is a relative of the famous reporter, the director of the ABC News office in Seoul – Cho Joo Hee.
aespa’s first debut
At the World Cultural Industry, Forum 2020 held on October 28, Lee Soo Man briefly introduced the concept behind Aespa. He explained that Aepsa has two groups of members that exist in parallel: Real-life members and avatar members. Both types of members will interact with each other through the digital world as shown in the video introduced.
Ever since the information about aespa was revealed, SM has made the public excited. Because, although they are not appreciated for their singing skills, the girl groups of this company so far such as SNSD, F(x), Red Velvet all possess beautiful beauty and always have popular visuals such as Yoona (SNSD), Krystal (F(x)), Irene (Red Velvet),…
Therefore, when the name aespa was introduced, fans expected it to be a girl group with “SM standard” beauty and the group’s debut photos were far different from what fans thought.
If SM’s previous girl groups had a debut picture with a simple concept, showing off their beautiful and natural visuals, aespa’s photos were considered to be over-edited, making the members look “too virtual”. These images made many netizens feel disappointed and afraid that the group would not stand out and be difficult to succeed like their SM seniors.
However, the images later proved to suit aespa’s “virtual” concept well, and now aespa members are often considered top visuals, winning over the heart of the Korean public with their beauty, charisma, and talents.
aespa’s Breakthrough and Later Career
In 2021, aespa dropped their single titled “Next Level”, and enjoyed an explode in popularity as the song not only topped Korean music charts, but also do well globally.
The group then continued to experience success with their 1st EP “Savage”, which not only recorded impressive physical sales, but did extremely well digitally.
In fact, by 2022, aespa has achieved their 1st Daesang Awards – a pivotal honor for Korean artists.
While the group underwent a stumble as their title track “Girls” did not perform well, they later rebounded with the success of 2023 title tracks “Spicy” and most recently, “Drama”.
Source: yan
