aespa is embroiled in the ongoing feud between SM Entertainment’s Lee Soo-man and company executives, who smear each other in public.
On February 16, co-CEO Lee Sung-soo announced that owner Lee Soo-man’s behavior is putting a damper on SM Entertainment and putting artists’ careers at risk. Co-CEO Lee Sung-soo accused owner Lee Soo-man of delaying the group’s comeback with unnecessary changes, which reportedly brought the girls to tears.
MYs, the fandom of aespa, were disheartened to learn the girls were crying after learning their long-awaited comeback was delayed due to the company’s internal politics and troubles.
In response to the ongoing media reports, one fan wrote on social media:
“That bad old man.”
aespa’s fans tend to “Justice for aespa” because their long-awaited comeback has been delayed
MYs took to social media to trend “Justice for aespa” as their long-awaited comeback took a hit due to the ongoing feud between Lee Soo-man and SM Entertainment co-CEOs Lee Sung-soo and Tak Young-jun the company’s business policy delayed .
MYs are angry, upset and frustrated that the Black mamba Singers had to bear the brunt of the company’s poor management skills, which even brought them to tears. Fans feel the girls deserve more music and comebacks considering the talented new girl groups are making waves around them.
SM Entertainment co-CEOs Lee Sung-soo and Tak Young-jun lashed out at company owner Lee Soo-man for jeopardizing their artists’ careers for his personal interests, particularly the talented Gen 4 girl group.
On February 16, Lee Sung-soo decided to go public by revealing that the Black mamba Girls originally planned to make a comeback on February 20th. However, during the album’s production process, Lee Soo-man ordered the group’s A&R team to change the lyrics of their comeback song to include references to “environment,” “plant trees,” and “sustainability.”
The A&R team argued that the concept didn’t fit well with aespa, whose core concept was Metaverse and the Kwangya universe. However, Lee Soo-man repeatedly insisted, leading to co-CEO Lee Sung-soo canceling the group’s comeback due to creative issues.
Lee Sung-soo revealed that members Karina, Winter, Giselle and Ningning shed tears after hearing their new song would be scrapped and their comeback delayed.
“Some of the text includes ‘sustainability only’, ‘down the grade by one’, ‘coexistence’ and ‘greener’. These words, which have nothing to do with K-pop at all, popped up here and there in the lyrics. The early part of the song even included “planting trees”. The aespa members were so upset that they even suffocated [with tears].”
aespa members recently subtly shadowed SM Entertainment in the live stream
On February 16th, Karina, Winter, Giselle and NingNing held a live surprise for fans ahead of their upcoming concert. The next level Singers shared their thoughts on their SM Entertainment label during the live stream.
They shared their excitement and revealed that they are preparing intensely for their upcoming concert and will unveil their new song live to the fans. They also shared that they will present new choreography and hope their fans will enjoy it.
At one point, fans mentioned that ticket prices were expensive even for the online concert. The girls read the commentary out loud and sided with the fans to express their disappointment at the high ticket prices.
“What? Do they have to pay to watch online? It’s also expensive (to watch) online. It costs [/krw]60000[/krw] (to watch online).”
Members agreed that ticket prices were indeed expensive and expressed disappointment.
“Even I am disappointed (in you).”
Fans noticed that the next level Singers subtly shaded their company by expressing solidarity with fans.
The girls are now preparing to host their first Asian tour, SYNK: Hyper Line, on February 25th at Seoul’s Jamsil Arena.
