aespa’s Karina delivered an unintentionally funny moment during her acceptance speech at the 2nd Asia Star Entertainer Awards 2025 (ASEA 2025), when she accidentally mispronounced her own group’s name, prompting a wave of laughter both onstage and in the audience.
The awards ceremony took place Wednesday afternoon at the K-Arena in Yokohama, Japan, with The Boyz’s Juyeon and IVE’s Rei serving as co-hosts.
aespa was named the winner of the Platinum Award and took the stage to accept the honor. Standing at the microphone, Karina thanked fans, saying, “We are honored to receive this meaningful award, and we’re so grateful to our fans. We worked hard on albums last year, and we’ll be back this year with even better music, so please look forward to it.”
However, while attempting to say “aespa’s future,” she accidentally mispronounced the group’s name—a slip that sent her into a fit of laughter.
Members Lose Composure, Ningning Wraps It Up
Karina, unable to continue, covered her mouth in an attempt to hold back her laughter. Winter stepped in to take over but also couldn’t contain herself, managing to say only, “I hope aespa will be… please take care of us,” while giggling.
The two tried to regain their composure, even hugging each other on stage, but to no avail. Eventually, Ningning stepped forward and smoothly closed out the speech with, “Please continue to love aespa, and arigato gozaimasu,” using the Japanese phrase for “thank you very much.”
Despite the slip, Karina maintained a cheerful presence throughout the evening, even amid recent controversy.
Just days before the awards show, Karina found herself at the center of political speculation after sharing a seemingly innocent photo taken in Japan. In the photo, she wore a red jacket with the number 2 printed on it and used a rose emoji in the caption—details that some interpreted as subtle support for a political party in South Korea.
As speculation mounted, Karina deleted the photo. The situation escalated further when a spokesperson from South Korea’s conservative People Power Party referenced an aespa shout-out on social media, pulling the group into political discourse.
In response, SM Entertainment issued a statement clarifying the situation:
“Karina’s post was a casual social media update with no political intent. Once she became aware that it could be misinterpreted, she promptly deleted it. We sincerely apologize for any concerns this may have caused.”
“We’re committed to being more mindful moving forward to prevent any similar misunderstandings. It’s important to us that our artists’ intentions aren’t misinterpreted, and we’ll continue to do everything we can to support and protect Karina and all of our artists,” the agency added.
Comments0