![Girl group A2OLITE performs at the global debut show "Welcome to Soulite From A2O Soul A2O Lite" held at Kintex in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, on Monday. [Yonhap]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/10/16/news-p.v1.20261015.04cdbca6efda46a79a1f20d72b4e4fba_P1.jpg)
It took nine girls just 29 hours to reach the top of South Korea's largest music streaming platform. The group is A2OLITE, the girl group that Lee Soo-man — key producer at A2O Entertainment and the architect of SM Entertainment — has brought to the domestic market for the first time in more than three years. It marks the first scorecard signaling the return of the "godfather of K-pop."
According to A2O Entertainment, A2OLITE's "NEON" climbed to No. 1 on Melon's Top 100 chart at 11 p.m. Wednesday and has held the position since. The song was released at 6 p.m. Tuesday, making the climb a 29-hour journey.
The agency said the speed was rare for a rookie act since Melon switched to its Top 100 chart format. "SUPERSTAR," the pre-release track by A2O Soul, a 15-member boy group that debuted the same day, also entered the streaming charts alongside "NEON."
The groups are also making waves overseas. "NEON" topped charts in eight countries and regions, including Apple Music in South Korea and iTunes overall charts in Italy and Malaysia. On QQ Music, China's largest music streaming platform, it simultaneously claimed the top spot on both the new-song chart and the popularity chart, while "SUPERSTAR" landed at No. 3 on the same new-song chart.
'The most important thing for a singer is ultimately the song': a 20-minute blueprint
One day before the two groups made their public debut, Lee took the stage himself. At the debut show "Welcome to Soulite," held Monday at Hall 2 of Kintex in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, he led a roughly 20-minute presentation. It was his first official public appearance in South Korea since a three-year non-compete agreement — entered into when he sold a 14.8 percent stake in SM to Hybe in February 2023 — expired.
The first word Lee reached for was "song." "As long as K-pop groups are called 'singers,' I believe the most important starting point is ultimately the song," he said. "Everything that flows from the song — the dance, the music video, the performance — has to feel different from what has come before." He added: "Being different alone is not enough. The result has to be something that many people like and love."
His philosophy is embedded in the company's name. A2O stands for "Alpha to Omega" — a concept in which the beginning and the end interlock, and the end becomes the start of something new.
Lee also revisited "Culture Technology," or CT, a concept he championed during his SM years. The technology he unveiled this time is "4DGS" — four-dimensional Gaussian splatting. The process involves filming an artist's movements simultaneously with multiple cameras, then combining that data to reconstruct the subject in three-dimensional space. Even after filming is complete, viewers can revisit the performance from any position and angle they choose. Both groups' music videos were produced using the technology.
Lee said he personally developed the "Matrix Camera System" used in music videos for Girls' Generation's "The Boys" and for BoA, TVXQ and SHINee, and described 4DGS as a natural extension of that work. "We are now at a point where, rather than asking what we can do with technology, we should be asking what we want to record and what we want to leave for the future," he said.
A2O is also changing how artists connect with fans. The company has launched a communication platform called Bloomingtalk and plans to introduce video talk sessions — live face-to-face conversations between artists and fans — later this month, with ambitions to expand into an interactive live talk show format that brings large numbers of fans together in real time. The K-pop market, however, already has established fan communication platforms such as Weverse and Bubble.
Nine members like Girls' Generation — and an Aijing who recalls BoA
When the girl group and boy group launched together, it was the girl group that drew first blood. A2OLITE is made up of nine members — Young, Oa, Ayun, Aijing, Himeki, Rada, Siri, Bora and Merci — matching the lineup size of Girls' Generation, which debuted in 2007. All nine members were born between 2008 and 2013, making them teenagers.
When the debut stage was released, online reactions quickly noted that Aijing was reminiscent of BoA. BoA debuted in 2000 at age 13 and became the first Korean artist to top Japan's Oricon album chart, earning the title "Star of Asia."
The music is anchored by producer Yoo Young-jin, who has collaborated with Lee since their SM days. "NEON" layers the members' harmonies and a cappella vocals over a heavy bass line, billing itself as "Zalpha Pop" aimed at Generation Z and Generation Alpha. "SUPERSTAR" falls under the "New Synthwave" genre, led by retro synthesizer sounds, with contributions from overseas producers including HANN, who co-wrote "Stay" by Justin Bieber and The Kid LAROI.
The two groups are united under a single fictional universe called ACE — A2O Cosmic Epic. The narrative follows a search for "soul," the force that keeps people alive, on a planet called Soulite where everything exists but love and excitement have faded. The group structure is also designed to be fluid: members can be reconfigured into units, solo acts and project teams to broaden their range of activities. A2O previously introduced girl group A2O May in China in December 2024.
Both groups made their first broadcast appearance Thursday on Mnet's "M Countdown," kicking off their full promotional schedules. At the debut show, Lee said: "What I hope for most, honestly, is a reaction that simply says, 'Ah — this is good.'"
shee@heraldcorp.com
