K-pop rookie aespa makes historic live stage debut at Coachella

Rookie K-pop girl group aespa made their grand debut at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, one of the world’s biggest music events, where they gave a live performance of an unreleased new song.

The quartet -- Karina, Giselle, Winter and Ningning -- took to the stage Saturday at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. They opened their segment of the night with subtitle track “aenergy” and kept the crowd roaring with their biggest hits, “Black Mamba,” “Next Level” and “Savage,” before hitting the climax with the premiere performance of “Life’s Too Short,” which, according to the girl group, sings about “staying true to oneself because life is too short to hate.”

Donning sparkling black and white dresses, the bandmates belted out in English, “I’m doing me regardless and I don’t care what you say about it. And it doesn’t matter if you like it or not, I‘m having all this fun. So why would I ever stop?”

“Some people are so mean, all behind a phone screen. But we’re trying to live our lives, why you gotta be so vicious? Just be about your business instead of getting up in mine. You need to get away, because life’s too short,” they continued, over the screams and applause from festivalgoers.

Not much information has been revealed about the new song, but from what’s been unveiled, the song is a new anthem from the quartet, performed in English on Saturday just for the Coachella audience. Although unconfirmed by the agency, the song is anticipated to be included in the act’s upcoming album.

Saturday’s short yet historic Coachella debut by aespa is more significant, as the night marked the group’s first performance in front of a live audience since their debut in November 2020. Life’s too short, indeed for these girls to wait long for their goals. 

“It‘s our first time performing in front of a large audience like this. We’re so happy to be here at Coachella,” the band said.

Aespa is the third K-pop girl group to be invited to the American music fest, following Blackpink in December 2019 and the now-disbanded 2NE1, which made a legendary reunion after over six years on the previous weekend.

A dream stage for musicians and performers around the world, Coachella previously shared its spotlight with K-pop artists, including frequent invitee Epik High and the popular boy band Big Bang. Even among these K-pop legends, aespa took the shortest time -- around a year and half since the group’s debut -- to get the call to the main stage at the US festival.

A rookie girl group from the K-pop powerhouse S.M. Entertainment, aespa has stood out strong among the up-and-coming bands to have debuted in recent few years. The act instantly shot to stardom with the debut single “Black Mamba” in 2020. The following year, they continued to rage forward with sensational hits, “Next Level” and “Savage,” among which the latter landed the band on Billboard’s main albums chart, the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 20.

Held annually since 1999, Coachella itself made a monumental return to the scene this year after over two years off amid the coronavirus pandemic. This year’s edition featured an array of headlining artists from around the world, including Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Conan Gray and Pink Sweat$, as well as K-pop artists Epik High and 2NE1.

By Choi Ji-won (jwc@heraldcorp.com)