Until recently,
aespa's career had primarily existed online. Partly due to their come-up occurring before live music made its return, and partly because the concept of this K-pop group centres around its members existing in a virtual realm alongside the real world.
When the girls made their debut in late 2020 as SM Entertainment's first girl group in seven years, their concept promised something completely new and unique, bringing together music and technology on an ambitious scale. Immediate buzz and speculation about how this would play out commenced.
In the few years since, aespa have climbed the pop ranks in record time, meaning that less than three years after their debut single '
Black Mamba' dropped, they're headlining London's O2 Arena. Landing with a bang, the four-piece kick off the night with a storming production of 2022 single '
Girls', managing to fit fierce rapping, impressive belting, a dance break and a guitar solo from WINTER all into the opening number.
This bad bitch energy remains for the first act, as they introduce themselves in '
aenergy' and rattle through '
I'll Make You Cry' and standout '
Savage'. Although the crowd here are noticeably less rabid than at other K-pop shows of late, aespa's performance doesn't suffer. After all, they're thoroughly warmed up, as this show arrives at the end of a lengthy first tour that initially started in South Korea back in February and has since taken them across Asia and North America before wrapping up with a trio of European shows.
