On March 16th, SM Entertainment told Newsen, “aespa is preparing for their comeback in May. Please look forward to it”.
If aespa officially makes their comeback in May, this will be the group’s first music release in 10 months since their second mini album “Girls” released in July of last year.
aespa was originally scheduled to make a comeback on February 20th. However, the girls’ comeback plan was postponed in the aftermath of SM’s management dispute.
In a video titled “SM Entertainment CEO Lee Sung Soo’s Statement Part 1” uploaded on SM’s Youtube channel on February 16th, CEO Lee Sung Soo explained the reason aespa’s comeback was delayed. He said, “Since last year, Lee Soo Man has been organizing and leading various K-pop festivals, emphasizing ‘Sustainability’ and launching tree-planting campaigns in various countries”, adding “He even forced aespa, a group that was created with a unique worldview, to sing lyrics about planting trees for their upcoming song, which is completely unmatched with the group’s concept.”
He continued, “As a result of such an unreasonable instruction and directive from Lee Soo Man, all department staff members were given a mission to connect aespa’s existing worldview team color with completely unrelated lyrics. Because of such absurd directions, content that no one could sympathize with was produced. Therefore, our co-CEOs decided to cancel the release of that song for the sake of aespa. That’s why aespa’s comeback has been pushed back.”
Meanwhile, SM faced a crisis when the management dispute between their current co-CEOs (Lee Sung Soo, Tak Young Joon) and former executive producer Lee Soo Man. As the co-CEOs joined hands with Kakao, Lee Soo Man sold his stakes in SM to HYBE led by Bang Si Hyuk, turning the management dispute into an acquisition battle.
The fierce competition between SM-Kakao and Lee Soo Man-HYBE continued until March 12th when HYBE announced that they would suspend the acquisition process in consideration of internal and external factors.
Source: Daum
