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Could EXO have been first K-pop act at Coachella? Fans say 'my villain origin story'

Fans angry after SM Entertainment secures a spot at Coachella for EXO's labelmates, aespa

Coachella 2022 has turned into a K-pop festival and fans are loving it. We first had Epik High becoming the first Korean act to not only perform once but twice. Following the hip hop group’s segment, Asian-American record label 88rising announced that they had surprise K-pop guests. They turned out to be none other than GOT7’s Jackson, BIBI and CL. CL went all out as she pulled a ‘MAMA 2015’ and reunited her former group 2NE1 at Coachella just like she had done at MAMA. And now, it has been announced that the next K-pop guest is aespa.

Following Blackpink who became the first K-pop group to debut at Coachella in 2019 and 2NE1’s surprise appearance, aespa is the third K-pop group to perform. However, with aespa being part of SM Entertainment, fans of their labelmate, EXO have a bone to pick with SM. Back in 2018, industry experts tweeted about bringing EXO to Coachella. Fans blew it up as they tagged EXO’s Twitter account in hopes that SM sees it and brings it to fruition.

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Was EXO almost at Coachella?

With nothing coming out of it, EXO-Ls (EXO’s fandom) forgot about the incident. But with SM now securing a place for rookie girl group aespa at Coachella 2022, EXO-Ls are angry. Fans feel that had SM done something about the tweet where the boy group’s demand from US media was evident, EXO could have very well become the first K-pop act to perform at Coachella in 2018. They are also recounting the number of missed opportunities like a Billboard invite, a collaboration request from Clean Bandit and a Skrillex collab with EXO’s Chanyeol lying in the vaults.

‘What did EXO ever do to SM’

One fan tweeted, “SM rejecting Billboard and Coachella invitations for EXO is literally my villain origin story. This company doesn’t deserve EXO.” Another EXO-L posted, “EXO got invited by Coachella but SM rejected it, now other artists from SM performing on Coachella, SM simply hate seeing exo being successful and i can't stand this anymore.” One fan shared, “The fact that EXO got invited for billboard interview sm rejected it, got invited to Coachella sm rejected it, Clean Bandit wanted to Collab with EXO sm didn't let that happen, EXO got a original YouTube series offer but sm rejected it the amount of offers sm rejected for EXO.”

Another shared that they were not dragging aespa but were angry for EXO, “I'll say this cause this is more of a criticism towards SM than it'll ever be for NCT or Aespa but it is really frustrating how much exo and red velvet have been essentially neglected when it comes to any us promo. Aespa 110% deserves to perform at coachella.” One EXO-L added, “Sm rejecting coachella and billboard invitations and i know they rejected way more things. what did exo even ever do to sm that they get treated like that like the only thing they did was save that stupid company and yet they are treated like this.”

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