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Who are the members of Aespa? Fans say SM Entertainment's new K-pop girl group will 'change the game'

The official SM Entertainment Twitter handle posted about new K-pop girl group Aespa along with a logo and an 'aespa: intro' teaser clip

SM Entertainment, the company that has developed and popularized numerous K-pop stars with global fandom, first teased the arrival of a new group on October 26, 2020. The official SM Entertainment Twitter handle posted about Aespa along with a new logo and an "aespa: INTRO" teaser clip. SM Entertainment changed their official YouTube channel’s header to the aespa logo and shared the same on its official Instagram account. Excited fans speculated that Aespa may be the name of SM Entertainment’s highly-anticipated new girl group and, now, the speculation has been revealed to be spot-on.

Explaining that the name "aespa" is derived from the words 'avatar', 'experience' and 'aspect', the agency announced that the new girl group will be debuting in November. They also explained the meaning of Aespa as follows: "being able to experience a new world through another avatar of yourself."

Who are the members of Aespa?

The official Aespa Twitter handle first shared details of the member Winter. Sharing her pictures, SM informed, "Winter is a 19-year-old Korean member with outstanding vocal and dance skills. Please look forward to her in aespa."

Revealing the second member, the Aespa handle said it was Karina and wrote, "Karina is 20 years old and Korean. She has various skills including vocals, rap, and dance."

The handle also shared a video called "MY, KARINA" where Aespa member Karina introduces the avatar member æ-Karina.

At the 2020 World Cultural Industry Forum, Lee Soo Man, founder of SM Entertainment, explained that there are artist members of Aespa who exist in the real world, as well as avatar members who exist in the virtual world as seen in the video above.

Speculated members

Some Twitter users also posted about the purported members of the K-pop girl group. One user tweeted, "The Expected 3rd Member of Aespa is Aeri! Name: Aeri/ Nationality: Korean-Japanese / Trained for a year / A Vocalist and Rapper (Not Confirmed)," while another wrote, "AESPA probably will have 4 members only (I wish 5 members tho) 1st member WINTER / 2nd member KARINA / 3rd member (NingNing) / 4th member (Aeri)."

Reactions

Reacting to the announcements, a fan tweeted, "The way Yoo Jimin/Karina is going to have one of the best Instagram aesthetics in K-pop," while another said, "Is Karina perhaps dancing a small snippet of AESPA's debut song choreo? It looks powerful already." A different 'stan' account tweeted about the fandom name saying, "Looks like SM has already planned out AESPA's FANDOM NAME to be NABI(s) (which means Butterfly in Korean). Their logo symbol 'æ' actually resembles it a bit," while another said, "#Aespa is the introduction to the new world of k-pop and like it or not it'll change the game."

More details about the group will be revealed in days to come. Watch for this space for updates.