aespa’s Winter Reveals Auditioned for SM Three Times: Even Brother Got Casted Before Her?
On July 1st, aespa member aespa Winter appeared on the YouTube series Salon Drip 2 and shared a behind-the-scenes story about her debut.
In the recent episode, Winter, who is from the Gyeongsang Province, shared, “People in Seoul are kind,” to which host Jang Do-yeon responded, “There are many bad people too.” Winter laughed and agreed, saying, “There really are.”
Regarding aespa’s powerful concept, Winter said, “Ningning and I were originally trained in pure and cute styles during our trainee days, and we ended up recording ‘Next Level,’ which felt more like an OST remake.” She explained this unexpected shift as part of aespa’s debut plan.
Winter revealed that she signed with SM Entertainment in 2017 and trained for three and a half years. The female idol recalled, “I auditioned for SM three times”, adding “At a dance festival, the staff actually intended to cast my brother, who came with me. But when we auditioned, I actually sang better than my brother. Though, he wasn’t bad either.“
Winter confessed, “I didn’t pass the audition at that time either. I got scouted during a dance festival and later had an official audition in Seoul—but I failed. Then I tried again at the SM Global Audition in Busan—and failed again.”
Feeling discouraged, she recalled, “I thought, ‘Maybe SM isn’t meant for me,’ and started auditioning for other agencies. Most of them said they wanted to see me again. But I kept in touch with the SM staff who had originally scouted me. When I said I was considering other companies, they told me, ‘Just audition one more time.’”
“At first I was like, ‘What? You said no before, and now that I’m going elsewhere you’re asking me back?’ But since I really wanted to join SM, I tried again—and that’s when I got in,” she concluded, revealing the surprising twist in her journey to debut.
