SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo-man to debut new K-pop group

By Lee Gyu-lee

Producer Lee Soo-man, the founder and former executive producer of K-pop powerhouse SM Entertainment, will be returning to the music scene with new K-pop groups after leaving his company last year.

A2O Entertainment released a teaser video of rookies on its social media, introducing the trainees as three different groups — HTG, LTG and LTB.

The one-minute video, titled “A2O Rookies ’Zal-Dance Compilation V1‘ Official Video,” shows a series of dance clips of 15 rookies, with the credits “Produced by S.M. Lee” shown toward the end.

“A2O is a collaborative global artist development platform where rookies receive training in one of four groups, organized by age. As they grow, the A2O Rookies in the LTB group will transition to HTB, and those in LTG will shift to HTG,” the company wrote in the video’s description.

“Throughout their training, the rookies will showcase captivating performances on the A2O Channel, either as solo acts or as units. Please join us in supporting these rookies as they develop and debut as artists!”

The company explained that HTG is an acronym for High Teen Girls aged 16 and up, LTG is Low Teen Girls, aged 15 and under, HTB is High Teen Boys, aged 16 and up, whereas LTB means Low Teen Boys, aged 15 and under. The details of the group’s debut have not been disclosed.

Rumors of Lee returning to the industry surfaced earlier this year when his company, Blooming Grace, was reported to have filed a trademark application for A2O Entertainment and held auditions for trainees in China and Japan last June.

This comes about a year and seven months after Lee sold his shares of SM Entertainment to another K-pop company, HYBE, and left the company in March last year during a bidding war.

HYBE and social media giant Kakao engaged in a fierce takeover battle for the management rights of SM Entertainment. Ultimately, the two companies reached a mutual agreement, with Kakao emerging as the winner in the acquisition of SM.

As part of the deal with HYBE, the K-pop executive producer agreed to suspend participating in any entertainment business activities in Korea for the next three years.

“SM Entertainment, which I founded and named after myself comes to the end of an era today. While I can’t help but feel emotional, I think the lyrics of ‘Happiness,’ a song I sang as an artist long ago, might represent this entire journey,” Lee said in the release soon after the deal.

“K-pop must evolve beyond K-pop into global music that connects with the world. The world of music that connects globally must bring together technology and music, and its goal should be to contribute to a sustainable world.”

Lee, who set foot in the entertainment industry as a folk singer in the 1970s, founded SM Entertainment in 1995 and grew it into a major K-pop company. It houses popular K-pop stars such as Girls’ Generation, EXO, Red Velvet, SHINee, NCT and aespa.