Young
- Name
- Not confirmed yet
- Born
- Not confirmed yet
Their story
A founder starts again
Lee Soo-man built SM Entertainment and, with it, much of how idol groups are made. He sold his stake in 2023 and agreed not to compete for three years. That period ended early in 2026. In October his new agency, A2O Entertainment, presented its first two groups for Korea on one stage in Goyang: the boy group A2O SOUL and the nine girls of A2O LITE.
One song, three and a half minutes
"NEON" came out on 13 October as a digital single, with no album around it. Yoo Young-jin produced it, the man behind songs for H.O.T., BoA, TVXQ, Girls' Generation, SHINee and aespa. It runs three minutes and 28 seconds, with a heavy bass line, high notes and a dance break. The Korea Times set it against the short, challenge-ready songs of recent years and wrote that it calls up earlier generations of K-pop.
The chart moved first
About 29 hours after its release "NEON" stood at No. 1 on Melon's Top 100. A week after debut the group won on The Show, and more trophies followed on cable and then on the big networks. Because there is no physical album, their scores carry no album points at all. Fans meanwhile went looking for the past in the present: Aijing was compared to a young BoA, Oa to Eugene and Jessica.
Where they are now
On 8 November A2O LITE won Inkigayo for the third week running, which made eleven music show trophies within a month. A day later A2O SOUL released their debut album, SUPERSTAR. A2O calls the music of both groups Zalpha Pop, made for Generation Z and Generation Alpha. A fan club name, a lightstick and a first album have not been announced in our sources. For now there is one song, and it is still near the top.