THREE weeks after debut, Winter of aespa performed in a solo stage for BoA’s 20th anniversary tribute in the 2020 Mnet Asian Music Awards . She performed BoA’s debut song, ‘ID; Peace B’ and garnered positive responses for her vocals, dancing skills, and stage presence.
The announcement that Winter will perform alone came at such an unexpected time and even surprised the fans. On the day of the award show, a promotional video was released by Mnet which listed the lineup of performers and ‘Winter of aespa’ was written on the screen and mentioned in the video.
On Twitter, ‘Winter of aespa’ trended as her solo appearance in MAMA became a topic of discussion among kpop fans. It is the first time that an idol group member who debuted less than a month before had the chance to perform a solo stage in an award show such as MAMA. It is both impressive and a curious case. Some fans speculated that since Winter gained a lot of support after aespa’s debut, SM took advantage of the situation and gave her this opportunity.
Others also concluded that BoA herself might have chosen Winter to perform, as after all, she is Winter’s direct senior by virtue of them both being under SM entertainment; that it is only fitting for her to personally choose her rookie junior to sing her debut song. Regardless of the reason for Winter’s selection, most would agree that she is one of the very few rookies who are competent enough to carry out a BoA stage on her own.
On the evening of December 6, 2020, Winter of aespa performed a solo stage of BoA’s ‘ID; Peace B’ in the 2020 MAMA. The BoA tribute stage also included performances from girl groups G-IDLE (Listen To My Heart) and IZ*ONE (Atlantis Princess), and another solo stage from Oh My Girl’s YooA (Tree). Winter’s performance was highly anticipated and some fans even grew impatient while waiting for the stage which was scheduled near the end of the show. For the performance, Winter wore an all-white ensemble-top, jacket, and ripped baggy pants-reminiscent of the pop star styling of the early 2000s. In a way, she was little BoA herself. Her performance drew a lot of attention partly due to the unsatisfactory camera work but overall for the fact that a rookie was given the chance to embody BoA on stage and delivered, as most viewers concurred.
It was both an honor to perform her sunbae’s song and a great opportunity for Winter to show off her skills as an idol as she was not able to do so in her SYNK teaser. Through this stage, we saw a glimpse of her potential and credibility as a performer. This is just the first of many solo stages to come in the future which will show us more of what she is capable of.
TeamWinter – LM ?
