With Aespa, SM Entertainment began its journey into a new universe in 2020. The young girl group marks the beginning of a new storyline that will unite all SM artists. Aespa not only consists of an unusual concept, but also four very talented members: Karina, Giselle, Winter and Ningning!
| Artist name | Real name | Birthday |
|---|---|---|
| Karina | Yu Jimin | 11.04.2000 |
| Giselle | Uchinaga Aeri | 30.10.2000 |
| Winter | Kim Minjeong | 01.01.2001 |
| Ningning | Ning Yizhuo | 23.10.2002 |
One or two members of Aespa presented themselves to the public before their debut. For example, Ningning was part of the trainee team “SM Rookies”, which, as the name suggests, consists of trainees from SM Entertainment. The future idols perform, among other things, covers in their own shows or at SM Town concerts. Karina can be seen in the music video “Want” by SHINee’s Taemin, which was released in February 2019. She then appeared as a dancer with him in several music shows!
Discography
On November 17th, 2020, Aespa debuted the digital single “Black Mamba”. Just six days later, the girl group won a music show with the song, showing their potential to reach the top right from the start! Like Stray Kids, TXT, ITZY, ENHYPEN and ATEEZ, Aespa belongs to the fourth generation of K-pop, which is generally believed to have started in 2018.
To date, the girl group has released a total of four singles and one album. The first single “Black Mamba” was followed on January 29, 2021 by “ Forever ”, a remake of the song sung by Yoo Youngjin in 2000. At the beginning of May, the girl group officially celebrated a comeback with the new single “ Next Level ”, which reached number 2 on the Gaon Digital Charts, making it the group's first top 5 hit.
On October 5th, the first album “ Savage ” was finally released with six tracks including the title song of the same name. Since the singles were previously only released digitally, Savage is the first physical album that fans have been eagerly awaiting. It topped the Gaon Album Charts and even reached number 20 on the US Billboard 200!
Most recently, Aespa presented a remake of SES's “Dreams Come True” on December 20, 2021. In the same month, the girl group won several awards, including “Stage of the Year” at the Asia Artist Awards and “Record of the Year” at the Melon Music Awards.
“Black Mamba” officially began a storyline that runs through all of the group’s other music videos. Before we go into this in more detail, we would first like to briefly introduce you to Aespa's concept, which aroused a lot of interest even before its debut.
Concept
The members of Aespa all have a virtual counterpart called “ae”. According to the fictional storyline, the “ae” are alter egos based on the data that people upload. This includes, among other things, photos on social media. Since these photos are often post-processed, the ae are often a “perfect” version of the person, but ultimately still undeniably a reflection.
The ae from Aespa were introduced before the girl group's debut and appear again and again in the music videos. They are named after their human counterpart, so for example Karina's virtual counterpart is named ae-Karina. Sometimes Aespa even refers to itself as a group of 8 because the ae members are also part of it. These can even be seen in the photo book from the album “Savage”.
The name "Aespa" itself, of course, embodies the group's concept. It is made up of the first letters of the English words “Avatar” and “Experience”, supplemented by the word “Aspect”, which here stands for “two sides”. All in all, the name symbolizes the “encounter with another self and the experience of a new world.”
With Aespa, SM Entertainment is opening the "SMCU" - SM Culture Universe - in which all of the agency's groups will be involved in the long term.
Storyline
As mentioned, the story begins with “Black Mamba.” The members sing that they are talking to themselves, i.e. to their ae. They also say that the existence of the ae takes them to another dimension. According to SM, there are two dimensions in SMCU. The real world in which normal people like you and me live and the alternative dimension “Kwangya” in which the villain “Black Mamba” rules.
As the song progresses, the members have trouble communicating with their ae personalities as the connection, also known as “synk” in SMCU, breaks down. Apparently the Black Mamba is responsible for this and is threatening to take over the ae. Aespa even briefly confronts them in the music video.
In “Next Level” Aespa prepares to confront the villain again. The group becomes stronger and wants to reach the “Next Level”, which is referred to in the song as “KOSMO”. The members announce that they will go to Kwangya and face the Black Mamba.
“Savage” starts there and conveys that Aespa believes that he can defeat the Black Mamba.
Between “Next Level” and “Savage,” SM Entertainment uploaded a video titled “Ep.1 Black Mamba - SM Culture Universe” to YouTube, which explains, among other things, that the ae can enter the real world through portals. The question is also asked: “What if ae gets hacked”. In the episode we see that the Black Mamba not only disrupts the connections between humans and their ae personality, but also influences the ae and perhaps even causes them to turn against their human partners.
We really want to know what happens next! Are you also excited about the stories that Aespa will tell us in the future?
Girls On Top
At the beginning of January 2022, Karina and Winter made their debut together with Taeyeon and Hyoyeon from Girls Generation, Seulgi and Wendy from Red Velvet and BoA in the project group “GOT” (Girls On Top). The first single “Step Back” was uploaded to YouTube on January 1st. It's a diverse group that spans multiple generations of K-pop! Karina was born in 2000, the same year 13-year-old BoA just made her debut!
