KBIZoom thumbnail default — It seems that the main vocalists of SM’s girl groups like aespa, Girls’ Generation, Red Velvet... all have the same style of singing high notes.

The reason why aespa’s NingNing is constantly accused of lip-syncing high notes (ft. SM’s main vocalists)

dhanJanuary 23, 2022Last Updated: January 23, 2022

2 minutes read

It seems that the main vocalists of SM’s girl groups like aespa, Girls’ Generation, Red Velvet… all have the same style of singing high notes.

Since the comeback with Savage, aespa has continued to come under controversy over alleged lip-syncing during various performances. Not only drawing criticism for lip-syncing at year-end domestic award shows such as MAMA 2021, KBS Gayo Daechukje 2021, SM’s rookie girl group was also caught lip-syncing in the States at The Nick Cannon Show, The Kelly Clarkson Show or Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

aespa lip-synced at The Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade (New York)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ggFJtjNTXQ

The same thing happened at the Nick Cannon Show

The group openly lip-synced at major year-end award shows in Korea

One of the reasons why aespa was accused of lip-syncing by viewers was due to the fact that the group’s main vocalist NingNing did not even try to “hide” the fact that she was lip-syncing. Whether it is the low or high note, or even when her mic is dropped, NingNing always sings effortlessly, without changing her expressions.

aespa NingNing lipsyncing — *Based on NingNing’s mouthing and expressions, netizens can discover that aespa was lip-syncing on stage.*

However, some netizens claim that singing high notes with effortless, unchanged expressions is actually the “tradition” of SM’s main vocalists. SM is famous for being a strict company when it comes to training vocals with extreme lessons such as singing while standing up and sitting down, singing with a basketball hit on the stomach to increase internal vocal strength,…

Therefore, SM is considered to have the most solid vocalists of Kpop with flawless vocal techniques and stable live singing skills. That’s why singing high notes looks like such a piece of cake for SM’s vocalists.

BoA’s highnote is so effortless it looks like she was lip-syncing

Taeyeon hit a high note effortlessly

Even while smiling

Luna (f(x)) is also a famous vocalist of Kpop 2nd generation

Seeing how Luna sang notes while dancing and smiling brightly like this, many people would think that Luna was lip-syncing

Since her debut, Wendy (Red Velvet) has always showed professionalism with the ability to sing live like eating CDs.

Her high notes are effortless as well

Therefore, those who criticize NingNing for being unprofessional and not “lip-syncing properly” perhaps need to know more about the “signature” singing style of SM vocalists. Despite the criticism, SM idols’ stable and powerful live singing is always something that makes fans proud. Netizens also wonder why SM keeps making aespa lip-sync on stage, while NingNing has already proved that she is good at singing live.