Fans Are Confused And Upset At Aespa’s Return To Lip Syncing At University Festivals

Despite their strong vocal abilities, aespa‘s members (or more accurately, SM Entertainment) have been criticized for how often they lip sync on stage rather than sing live.

While lip syncing is far from being a rare occurrence in the K-Pop industry, especially for artists with intense choreographies, fans of the group feel like aespa is doing it far more frequently than most. And when fans pay a lot of money to see their favorite artist perform live, it’s understandable why it would be upsetting to realize that they’re not actually singing.

I LOVEEEEE my aespa girls and I KNOW for a fact that they are talented.
But I will never understand why most of the times they perform to lip sync. Like they train for like 5 years for that? Huh??? pic.twitter.com/otPobhxp3V

— æManu (@CozyKaty) April 24, 2022

An exception to this was aespa’s performance at Coachella. Netizens were pleasantly surprised when they realized the members weren’t lip syncing at the festival, and it seemed that aespa themselves were enjoying the chance to showcase their vocal skills.

they said lip sync allegations whomst? #aespaLiveAtCoachella #aespa #aespaCoachella @aespa_official
pic.twitter.com/167yy2mXKj

— JAY (@gothseunghee) April 24, 2022

NEXT LEVEL Coachella pt2 @aespa_official #aespa #aespaCoachella #88risingCoachella #KARINA #WINTER #GISELLE #NINGNING pic.twitter.com/Y2CJFuHFpK

— Who.ops! (@Pinkmojito1122) April 24, 2022

While there was some hope that this would be the beginning of the end for aespa’s lip syncing, a recent performance at Korea University has fans of the group angry and confused to see the members not singing live once again.

[CLIP] 220526 Korea University Festival #aespa #WINTER #윈터 Cut

https://t.co/6vShF1wOYM pic.twitter.com/vEKax32iVi

— WINTER GLOBAL (@Winter_Global) May 26, 2022

Aespa is back to lipsyncing at university festivals, I don’t get why from kpopthoughts

Most of the anger is directed at SM Entertainment itself. Fans agree that it’s unlikely the members of aespa are given the choice whether to sing live or not, and they worry that the continued use of lip syncing is bringing a negative reputation to the girl group.

And it’s not as though the label does this with all of their groups. In fact, Red Velvet performed at the same festival with live vocals, which makes the whole situation just that much more baffling.

There’s just no clear reason as to why aespa in particular are not being allowed to showcase their live vocals, and unless a legitimate reason is announced at some point, fans will likely continue to plead to SM Entertainment to let the girls sing.

aespa at Coachella