Girl group aespa named on Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia honorees list

aespa [SM ENTERTAINMENT]

Girl group aespa was named one of Forbes' 30 Under 30 Asia honorees and was the only K-pop act to make the list, SM Entertainment said Friday.

Every year, Forbes chooses 30 “leaders” who are under 30 years old in 10 sectors ranging across arts, marketing, technology, finance and health care among 22 regions in Asia.

aespa made the list in the Entertainment & Sports section.

Forbes introduced aespa’s song “Next Level” (2021) as the group’s most popular song, the music video of which racked up more than 215 million views on YouTube, and listed other notable achievements for the group: such as becoming brand ambassadors for Givenchy last year and the numerous awards aespa won since its debut in 2020.

“The quartet is already one of the hottest girl groups in K-pop,” Forbes said.

Earlier this month, aespa was the first K-pop girl group to be chosen as one of Time magazine’s Next Generation Leaders.

aespa is known for its metaverse concepts and commercially successful songs like “Black Mamba” (2020), “Next Level” and “Savage” (2021).

The group has four members: Giselle, Karina, Ningning and Winter.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]