SM founder Lee Soo-man returns home with tech-driven double debut

Three years after a boardroom battle pushed him out of SM Entertainment, the company he founded, K-pop mogul Lee Soo-man unveiled two new idol groups on Monday in his first music project in Korea since his noncompete agreement with HYBE expired in February. His Singapore-headquartered A2O Entertainment introduced 15-member boy group A2O Soul and nine-piece girl group A2O Lite at a joint showcase at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, where both groups performed live for the first time. Their digital singles, “Superstar” and “Neon,” come out at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The launch also uses an unusual format — two groups debuting at once, linked through a shared fictional universe centered on "Soulite," an alien planet. “The question I get asked most is what makes A2O different,” said Lee, who took the stage at the showcase. “As long as K-pop groups are classified as singers, what a singer needs most is a song. I wanted everything, from the song to the dance, music video, performance and concert, to be different from what came before.” Being different alone is not enough, he adde