aespa LEMONADE: 46 Videos in 11 Days From the Official Channel, 8 Days Before the Album
Key Takeaways
- · 에스파 선공개곡 ‘WDA’가 SMTOWN 채널에서 5월 11일 공개되고 11일 동안 2,110만 뷰를 기록했습니다.
- · 같은 11일 동안 aespa 공식 채널은 영상 46편(쇼츠 38 + 롱폼 8)을 올렸고, 5월 13일 7편, 5월 17일 6편으로 두 차례 정점을 만들었습니다.
- · 5월 20일 SM엔터테인먼트는 정규 2집 ‘LEMONADE’ 타이틀곡에 베키 지, 수록곡 ‘Switchblade’에 타이 달라 사인 피처링 합류를 공식 발표했습니다.
- · 2025년 6월 ‘Dirty Work’, 2025년 9월 ‘Rich Man’ 컴백 월에 같은 채널이 각각 55편, 84편을 올렸으며, 영상 생산 빈도가 평월의 약 4배까지 올라가는 패턴이 반복됩니다.
- · 5월 29일 정규 2집 발매 → 6월 7일 ‘aespa WEEK’ 팝업 종료 → 8월 7~8일 고척돔 콘서트로 이어지는 약 3개월 통합 사이클의 출발점이 5월 11일이었습니다.
aespa's pre-release single 'WDA (Whole Different Animal)' dropped on the SMTOWN channel on May 11 and pulled 21.1 million views in eleven days. Over the same window, aespa's own official channel uploaded 46 videos — 38 shorts and 8 long-form clips. The group's second full album 'LEMONADE' lands May 29, and on May 20 SM Entertainment announced two more featured artists: Becky G and Ty Dolla $ign.
After WDA Dropped on May 11, the aespa Channel Posted 46 Videos in 11 Days
aespa's official channel opened the run on May 8 with a Karina car behind-the-scenes clip. After 'WDA' landed on SMTOWN on May 11, the channel raised its publishing cadence: 2 videos on May 8, 3 on May 11, 3 on May 12, 7 on May 13, and 6 on May 17 — the two peaks. Through May 21 the total reaches 38 shorts plus 8 long-form, or 46 videos. The combined view count inside the channel alone sits near 22.7 million. It reads less like a side marketing push and more like an 11-day content clock counting down to the album.
600K Views on the May 7 Teaser, 21.1M on the May 11 MV — The First Four Days
The 'WDA' MV teaser dropped on SMTOWN on May 7 and pulled 600,000 views. Four days later, on May 11, the full MV opened to 21.1 million views, 502K likes and 32K comments over eleven days on the same channel. One outlet wrote on May 12 that 'WDA' was 'lifting the comeback energy for the full second album with global chart presence.' A May 14 culture music video review called the MV 'quite frightening — member Giselle appears as a Japanese-horror-style ghost on the highway, and the chase sequence with crows shows the possibilities of generative-AI-driven visuals.' The visual tone itself became part of the conversation.
From M Countdown on May 14 to Show! Music Core on May 16
SM Entertainment announced on May 14 that aespa would appear on Mnet M Countdown that day, KBS Music Bank on May 15, and MBC Show! Music Core on May 16. Three music shows over three days, all carrying the 'WDA' stage. In the same week, member Karina was unveiled on May 20 as the face of CHANEL's new cleansing collection campaign. A separate global luxury announcement landed inside the same comeback week, and the two stories funneled search traffic in one direction.
7 Videos on May 13, 6 on May 17 — The Intensive Shorts Window
Daily video counts on the official channel ran 3 on May 11, 3 on May 12, 7 on May 13, 5 on May 14, 5 on May 15, 5 on May 16, and 6 on May 17. On May 13, the 'WDA Dance Practice' long-form clip drew 1.32 million views. On May 17, the 'LEMONADE Make It LEMONADE' clip drew 524K views — the moment the title track name first showed up on the channel in earnest. After May 17 the shorts hashtags shifted weight from '#WDA #aespaWDA' to '#LEMONADE #aespaLEMONADE.' Forty-six videos over eleven days, paced on a single target — May 29.
aespa 공식 채널 월별 영상 수 (컴백 사이클 비교)
* Source: Dhesy
On May 20, Becky G and Ty Dolla $ign Completed the Global Feature Lineup
On May 20, SM Entertainment formally announced the additional features for 'LEMONADE.' The title track gets Becky G; the album cut 'Switchblade' gets Ty Dolla $ign. Both names land on top of G-DRAGON, who featured on the pre-release 'WDA.' The same announcement set 'aespa WEEK - MAKE IT LEMONADE,' a pop-up project across Yeouido IFC Mall and Banpo Han River Park in Seoul running May 29 through June 7, with the Banpo Moonlight Rainbow Fountain lit up on May 29-30. Content, music, and offline events were bundled into one calendar.
Compared to Dirty Work in 2025-06 and Rich Man in 2025-09
Lined up by comeback cycles, the aespa channel posted 33 shorts plus 22 long-form (55 total) in June 2025 around 'Dirty Work,' and 65 shorts plus 19 long-form (84 total) in September 2025 around 'Rich Man.' The November 2024 stretch right after 'Whiplash' came in at 22 shorts plus 15 long-form. Off-cycle months sit lower: 9 shorts and 6 long-form in March 2026, 13 shorts and 13 long-form in April 2026. May 2026, just through the 22nd, already reads 53 shorts plus 11 long-form — 64 videos, with more likely before the May 29 release. Every time the channel runs at roughly four times its baseline cadence, the calendar lines up with a comeback or album drop.
Where This Pattern Stops Generalizing
The channel does not always run this hot. February through April 2026 sat at 6 to 13 shorts and 2 to 13 long-form per month — a baseline level when no comeback was active. May 2025 dropped to 5 shorts and 7 long-form. The 46-video stretch since May 8 is a comeback-cycle reading, not a description of how the channel normally operates. Many of those shorts share '#WDA #LEMONADE' hashtags as short stage clips, expression cuts and making-of moments, so single-clip comparisons run into limits.
From the May 29 Release Through aespa WEEK to August's Gocheok Dome
At the May 22 mark, what is visible is roughly the first half of the cycle. After the May 29 'LEMONADE' release, a title-track MV is likely to land on the SMTOWN channel, and the official channel is likely to enter a second intensive content window through the June 7 close of 'aespa WEEK.' Reports indicate aespa also has a solo Gocheok Dome concert on August 7-8, which would extend a roughly three-month integrated cycle from the May 11 'WDA' drop to the August shows. A week from now, when the LEMONADE audio is public, May 11 will read more clearly as the cycle's starting point. Fans tracking the channel can already anticipate roughly when and what kind of clip lands next; a general reader who does not follow K-Pop comebacks closely can see a major-group comeback move as a single bundle starting about 18 days before the release.
Method
Based on data collected on the Dhesy platform across 4,994 brands and 7,925 creators. Per-video view counts and publish dates were pulled from the aespa official channel (UC9GtSLeksfK4yuJ_g1lgQbg) and the SMTOWN channel (UCEf_Bc-KVd7onSeifS3py9g). Analysis window: 2024-05-13 to 2026-05-22. Shorts vs long-form follows the platform's own shorts marker only; no 60-second heuristic was applied. Comeback-cycle comparisons stack the totals from each release month against off-cycle months.
Data source: Dhesy External sources: SM Entertainment official announcements (May 19-21, 2026); coverage from Hankyung, Money Today, Newsis and other outlets (May 12-21, 2026); culture music video review (May 14, 2026). Last updated: 2026-05-22