Aside from visuals, fans also pay attention to the live singing skills of these girl groups.
Netizens often discuss the live singing ability of Kpop idols as a way to evaluate their skills. Among the current hottest 4th generation girl groups, aespa and ITZY do not disappoint with their vocals when singing live, while IVE receives mixed reactions.
aespa proves their vocals are “SM level”
Since their debut, aespa has garnered much attention from the public. The SM’s youngest girl group became the most successful rookie within the last 12 months by bagging numerous awards. During the promotion for Savage, netizens were extremely curious about aespa’s unfiltered vocals when they had to sing live at their first encore stage on Inkigayo (October 24. And the girls did not disappoint. aespa’s encore video created a stir online because of their flawless vocals that sound exactly the same as the studio version.
Netizens are especially impressed with NingNing‘s powerful voice, vocal techniques, and Winter‘s unique voice color. However, recently at MAMA 2021, aespa drew criticism for lip-syncing. Many netizens pointed out that the group did not even attempt to lip-sync properly, based on the members’ expressions when hitting high notes.
ITZY lacks a powerful vocalist
Although there is no outstanding vocalist in the lineup like aespa, ITZY makes a good impression on the public with their live singing skills. Chaeryeong, Yuna, Yeji and Ryujin all have good breath control and always sound stable when singing live. On the other hand, ITZY’s main vocalist, Lia, gets into controversy over her singing many times as netizens claim her ability is only the level of a lead vocalist. Although ITZY gets praised for their live singing, they often receive negative comments for sounding flat and emotionless.
ITZY is considered a group without a “real” main vocalist, but when it comes to live singing, they are still more appreciated than their JYP senior, TWICE.
IVE gets mixed reactions to their lacking live singing skills
IVE is also one of the most prominent K-pop rookie groups right now. The girl group made their debut with the song ELEVEN and won their first weekend music show trophy on Show Champion. As a result, IVE became the fastest girl group to achieve No. 1 in 7 days. The 6 girls’ encore performance, on the other hand, sparked a lot of debate.
The IVE members were all shaking and couldn’t sing correctly since they were so emotional after their first win. As a result, the group did not finish the song and was continually interrupted. When hitting a high note in the encore, Rei, in particular, switched to calling the fandom name “DIVE,” which drew a lot of backlash. Many anti-fans said that the six girls are clinging to emotions in order to avoid performing live.
Even while IVE, ITZY, and aespa are all excellent Gen 4 girl groups, their live singing skills are vastly different. As a consequence, fans will draw even more comparisons. Furthermore, the fans of the three groups hope that their idols’ skills will improve in the future.
