Birthday Spotlight, Happy Winter Day

Winter aespa's 21st birthday right on the New Year's 2022. Check out Winter's career review from pre-debut to future projects through the Birthday Spotlight section.

Winter aespa is 21 years old right in the New Year of 2022. As usual, the WowKeren editorial team will thoroughly review the career of the idol who was born on January 1, 2001 through the Birthday Spotlight column.

Winter is one of the vocalists of aespa who is also part of the project group Girls On Top. This idol made by SM Entertainment is often said to be similar to Girls' Generation's Tae Yeon. The owner of the name Kim Minjeong also successfully captivated fans with his strong charm.

Before debuting with AESPA, Winter underwent a three-year trainee period. Immediately, check out Winter's career review from pre-debut to the following future projects!

1. Pre Debut

Among the four aespa members, Winter's pre-debut photos are the hardest to find. But they managed to find it, and in the photo, the idol already looks beautiful.

Some shared how Winter looked so pretty when she was an elementary school student. Others also commented that it is not easy to look that beautiful when you are young.

Since being introduced as an aespa member, Winter's visuals and smile have caught the attention of many K-Pop fans. Many also talk about how beautiful her avatar is.

2. Debut

On October 27, 2020, Winter was introduced as the first member of aespa by SM Entertainment. The agency debuted Winter alongside Karina, Ningning, and Giselle with the single "Black Mamba" on November 17.

aespa made their broadcast debut on KBS2's "Music Bank" on November 20 to perform "Black Mamba." The song reached number one on the K-Pop music video charts of China's largest music streaming service.

Winter explained the meaning behind his stage name. According to Winter, there are several other stage names determined by SM Entertainment. But he finally debuted under his current stage name.

"There are several candidate stage names for me such as Millie, Young Won (forever) and Moa. I was born in January 2001, so I was born in winter and my agency named me Winter because I have a white and clean image," he said.

3. Career Peak

Debuting at the end of 2020, Winter with aespa won their first music show on SBS "Inkigayo" on January 17, 2021. They continued the success with the remake single "Next Level" which scored a proud achievement.

SM described the song as a dance and hip-hop track with a "groovy" rap, "energetic" bass and "strong vocals". Until a few months after its release, this single is still firmly in the top 3 of the Melon chart, which automatically boosts AESPA's popularity.

On September 14, 2021, SM Entertainment announced aespa would be releasing their first mini album, "Savage". The album contains six tracks, including the lead single of the same name and was released on October 5.

"Savage" succeeded in bringing aespa to become the girl group with the most album sales in 2021, surpassing TWICE with "Taste of Love". In addition, the music video for "Savage" also achieved 100 million views in less than a month since its release. The same song led Aespa to win trophies at music events.

4. Solo Activities

Winter didn't officially make his solo debut, but he did have some great solo performances at times. The 2001-born idol performed BoA's hit song "ID; Peace B" on the 2020 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) special stage and received a positive response.

In the free online concert titled SMTOWN LIVE "Culture Humanity" on January 1, 2021, Winter performed the song "Yours" with DJ Raiden. This song was actually sung by Chanyeol EXO who took Lee Hi.

But Chanyeol did not appear, while Winter took the part of Lee Hi. The beautiful idol, who had just debuted at that time, sang Lee Hi's part very well.

5. Controversy

Although just debuted, Winter has stumbled a number of controversies. In August 2021, netizens argued about the way Winter treated a cat that wasn't his, which sparked controversy.

In the video shared by Twitter users, Winter's index finger is seen constantly holding the cat's head in annoyance. But the cat ran away. Many netizens felt that Winter treated the cat badly.

Then on August 31, Winter was accused of raising hamsters the wrong way. Winter's story about his pet hamster became controversial as some netizens accused him of abusing animals.

Winter reappeared in controversy in November 2021 when some netizens accused him of being an Ilbe extremist because of certain words he used. He conducts normal conversation for those living in Gyeongsang province with the Gyeongsang dialect.

But some began accusing Winter of using controversial grammar and criticizing him for using the way the extremist website Ilbe spoke. The extremist website Ilbe is known to use the grammar "-No" in its sentences to poke fun at the late President Roh Moo Hyun.

6. Future Projects

On December 27, 2021, it was announced that Winter and his group mate Karina will be part of the new unit "GOT the Beat" from the Girls On Top project that is ready to be debuted by SM Entertainment.

The seven members of Girls On Top include Girls' Generation's BoA, Tae Yeon and Hyoyeon, Red Velvet's Seulgi and Wendy, and AESPA's Karina and Winter.

Girls On Top's “GOT the Beat” will be debuting with a special performance during the online concert “SMTOWN LIVE 2022 - SMCU EXPRESS @KWANGYA” on January 1 KST. The group's debut single and MV will be released on January 3 at 6 p.m. KST. Anyone impatient? (wk/chus)