A2O LITE

A2O LITE is the first girl group A2O Entertainment launched for the Korean market, debuting on the same day as its boy group A2O SOUL.^[1] The nine members come from South Korea, China, Japan, Thailand and the United States.^[2] Lee Soo-man is credited as the project's key producer, and Yoo Young-jin, a former SM producer, was in charge of its music and performances.^[1][3] Its debut single 'NEON' reached No. 1 on Melon's TOP100 chart 29 hours after release, the fastest climb to the top by a new group's debut song since Melon rebuilt the chart in August 2021.^[6]

Members

The members perform under stage names. A2O gave each one's home country and age when it introduced the line-up on 11 October 2026; the ages below are the ones it gave then.^[2][4]

History

Lee Soo-man founded SM Entertainment in 1995. In 2023, after a dispute over how the company was run, he sold his 14.8 percent stake to HYBE and agreed not to produce music in Korea for three years. In that time he set up A2O Entertainment, based in Singapore, and launched A2O MAY, a girl group made up mainly of Chinese members, in 2024.^[3]

On 8 October 2026 A2O announced its first project for the Korean market: a boy group, A2O SOUL, and a girl group, A2O LITE, launched together rather than one after the other. The same evening it opened social media channels for both and posted individual trailers for A2O LITE's members.^[1]

Both groups first performed on 12 October 2026 at a joint showcase, 'Welcome to Soulite From A2O Soul A2O Lite', held at KINTEX in Goyang and streamed on M2 and Mnet Plus. The members performed but took no questions from the press.^[1][2] The 'NEON' music video was released at 9:30 pm Korean time that night,^[5] and the single followed on streaming services at 6 pm on 13 October.^[1][3]

'NEON' entered Melon's TOP100 at No. 77 on release night and reached No. 1 at 11 pm on 14 October. The previous fastest debut song by a new group since the August 2021 rebuild, ALLDAY PROJECT's 'FAMOUS', had taken three days in June 2025.^[6]

Concept

A2O places A2O LITE and A2O SOUL in one shared fictional universe, ACE (A2O Cosmic Epic). It begins on Soulite, a planet whose people can have anything they want. A2O SOUL travel to Earth in search of 'soul', and each member of A2O LITE carries a colour formed by her own memories and feelings; the colours blend into new ones.^[2] A2O said members of the two groups could also work in sub-units with changing line-ups.^[2]

The company calls the group's music Zalpha pop, after the Zalpha generation: Generation Z and Generation Alpha taken together.^[2][4] Both groups' first music videos were filmed with 4D Gaussian splatting, a technique developed with Samsung Electronics that merges footage from many cameras into one three-dimensional space so that camera moves can be chosen after filming.^[2][3]

Discography

• 'NEON' (digital single, 13 October 2026). Lyrics, music and arrangement: Dem Jointz and Yoo Young-jin. Length 3:28.^[7] Peak: No. 1 on the Melon TOP100.^[6]

Videography

• 'NEON' (12 October 2026), released a day before the single.^[5]

Related groups

• A2O SOUL: a 15-member boy group from A2O Entertainment that debuted at the same showcase, with the single 'SUPERSTAR'.^[2]
• A2O MAY: an A2O Entertainment girl group, made up mainly of Chinese members, launched in 2024.^[3]