Winter, a member of the K-pop group aespa, recently shared how she achieved her dream of becoming an idol. In a YouTube interview on the show Salon Drip 2, she talked openly about her journey. One of the most surprising things she revealed was that, at first, her brother was actually the one who caught the attention of SM Entertainment, not her.
She explained that she and her brother went to a dance festival together. Staff from SM Entertainment were there and were more interested in casting her brother. Even though she ended up dancing better than him, she still wasn’t selected at the time. This moment stuck with her and made her even more determined to join the company.
Winter said that SM Entertainment was always her dream company. She wanted badly to become a K-pop idol with them, so she didn’t give up. She auditioned three times. After being rejected twice, she finally told someone at SM that she might join a different company. That’s when they gave her one last chance to audition. At that final audition, she managed to impress them and was accepted.
She officially joined SM Entertainment in 2017. After that, she trained for three and a half years. Her hard work paid off when she debuted as a member of aespa alongside Karina, Giselle, and Ningning.
Winter also talked about how aespa’s style changed over time. She said that during their trainee days, she and Ningning were trained in cute and pure concepts. However, when the group debuted, they took on a much stronger and more powerful image. Their song “Next Level,” for example, felt more like a movie soundtrack than a typical K-pop song. She believes this change happened because the group needed to grow and adapt to the trends in the music industry and what fans wanted to see.