Who is aespa?

Girl group aespa debuted under SM Entertainment in 2020 with a futuristic "virtual human" concept that reflects the agency's experimental approach.

The group's name stands for "Avatar X Experience" and represents the idea of "meeting another self to experience a new world." It consists of four human members — Karina and Winter of Korea, Giselle of Japan and Ningning of China — and four virtual counterparts: ae-Karina, ae-Giselle, ae-Winter and ae-Ningning.

Its early music and concepts revolved around the fictional "Kwangya" universe, also known as the SM Culture Universe, which blends the real and virtual worlds. The storyline is reflected in songs including "Black Mamba" (2020), "Next Level" (2021), "Savage" (2021) and "Girls" (2022).

Since its debut, aespa has released a string of hit songs and set numerous records. The music video for "Black Mamba" (2020) reached 100 million views in just 51 days and 12 hours, becoming the fastest debut music video by a K-pop group to reach the milestone at the time.

With its successful debut, aespa received multiple "Rookie of the Year" awards, including at the 2020 Asia Pop Music Awards, the 2021 Seoul Music Awards and the 2021 Asia Artist Awards. The group went on to dominate the 2021 Melon Music Awards, winning "Best New Female Artist," "Top 10 Artist," "Best Female Group" and "Record of the Year with its massive hit single "Next Level" (2021).

In 2022, aespa became the third K-pop girl group to perform at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, following 2NE1 and Blackpink.

The group launched its first world tour, "2023 aespa 1st Concert 'SYNK : Hyper Line,'" in 2023, with performances across 21 cities.

aespa continued its success with hits including "Supernova" (2024), "Armageddon" (2024) and "Whiplash" (2024).

Its second full-length album"Lemonade" was released on May 29. The album entered the U.S. Billboard main albums chart at No. 9, marking the group's third top 10 entry on the Billboard 200, following "Girls" (2022) and "My World" (2023).

Its first Japanese EP "Kiss N Tell" is scheduled for release on July 24.

BY WOO JI-WON [woo.jiwon@joongang.co.kr]