A2O LITE Didn’t Even Show Up, and Still Took MBC’s Whole Saturday

Featured photo: A2O LITE, October 21, 2026. Photo: K-POPIT via YouTube / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

On Saturday, October 31, A2O LITE never set foot on an MBC stage. Yet that afternoon Show! Music Core handed “NEON” first place, and that same evening, on Hangout with Yoo, 58-year-old actor Kim Kwang-kyu danced “NEON.” Eighteen days after its release, a song put out by 74-year-old Lee Soo-man filled one broadcaster’s entire Saturday without the group even being there.

To be honest, as a fan I’m thrilled these two pieces of news landed on the same day. Once with a trophy, once with a laugh: “NEON” won twice in a single day.

The group that wasn’t on stage took first place

In Korea, each broadcaster runs a weekly music show that crowns a No. 1 by combining digital sales, album sales, broadcast points and viewer votes. That’s the trophy international fans call a “music show win.” On October 31, the nominees on Show! Music Core were IVE’s “Looks Can Kill,” NMIXX’s “Long Wish” and A2O LITE’s “NEON.” IVE and NMIXX performed on that day’s show. A2O LITE didn’t appear.

It wasn’t close. “NEON” scored 6,557 points in total, NMIXX 4,673 and IVE 3,978.[1] A rookie’s song that wasn’t even in the building finished almost 2,000 points ahead of two senior groups who performed live that day. It means “NEON” is being heard so much in Korea right now that it can win without a stage.

With this trophy, A2O LITE now has seven music show wins: The Show on October 20, Show Champion on the 21st, M Countdown on the 22nd, Inkigayo on the 25th, Show! K-POP on the 26th, a second Show Champion on the 28th, and their first Show! Music Core win on the 31st.[2] The “NEON” stage they performed on this program on October 24 has passed 2.04 million views on MBC’s official channel (checked November 1).

Losing at foot volleyball, the team played its “NEON” card

At 6:30 that evening, Hangout with Yoo, MBC’s Saturday variety show led by Yoo Jae-suk, ran a special with Kim Kwang-kyu as its VIP guest. In a game of jokgu (Korean foot volleyball) with the noodle bill on the line, the team of Kim Kwang-kyu, Heo Kyung-hwan and Joo Woo-jae fell behind 14 to 4. Joo Woo-jae dropped to his knees and begged, “Please, just knock off five points.” When Haha chimed in, “Do a party trick or something,” Yoo Jae-suk set the terms: “The three of you dance. Put together a routine. And the song is ‘NEON.'”[3]

Kim Kwang-kyu’s first words were, “What’s NEON?” But once the court turned into a stage, the three tried the opening choreography of “NEON.” Joo Woo-jae even copied Aijing’s self-introduction: “I’m Aijing. (My charm points are) my eyebrows and my smile.” Heo Kyung-hwan attempted Aijing’s signature kick, and Kim Kwang-kyu took the center for the “neon” line.[3][4] When they finished, Yoo Jae-suk laughed and said, “I’ll take off ten points.” They lost the game in the end, but they won that scene. Watching 58-year-old Kim Kwang-kyu dance, minutes later, the song he’d just asked “What’s NEON?” about was honestly adorable.

MBC titled its official clip of the scene “Joo Woo-jae x Heo Kyung-hwan x Kim Kwang-kyu’s strangely convincing NEON.” It passed 45,000 views in nine hours, and the preview posted five days before the broadcast has passed 1.1 million (checked November 1).

From a chart song to everybody’s song

When a Saturday evening variety show picks a song for a party trick, it means nearly every viewer already knows it. Everyone except Kim Kwang-kyu, anyway. The numbers say the same. At 4 a.m. on November 1, “NEON” was still No. 1 on the Melon TOP100, and it has spent 16 of its 17 days at No. 1 on Spotify’s South Korea daily chart.[5] The music video is at 33.64 million views and growing by about 1.16 million a day (checked November 1). It started with a Melon No. 1 just 29 hours after release (Korea Flipped When the King of K-pop Came Back), and two weeks later it was No. 3 in the world outside the US on Billboard’s global chart (Two Weeks Without SM, Lee Soo-man Beat BTS on Billboard).

A song from A2O Entertainment, the Singapore company Lee Soo-man founded after leaving SM in 2023, has made its way into Korean living rooms on a Saturday night. The story of how Lee, born in 1952, is still winning with the youngest instincts in the business is in 74 and Not Done Yet: The King of K-pop. Released by a 74-year-old, sung by members from several countries, copied by a 58-year-old: this is what a song that crosses generations looks like.

That day “NEON” picked up a trophy at MBC, but A2O LITE wasn’t there to hold it. The next time they stand on that stage in person, I want to see the real Aijing kick, not Heo Kyung-hwan’s.

Sources

• [1] Sports Today, October 31, 2026: “A2O LITE wins Show! Music Core without appearing”
• [2] Celuv Media, October 31, 2026: “A2O LITE takes first Show! Music Core win, seven music show trophies”
• [3] Sports Kyunghyang, October 31, 2026
• [4] TenAsia, October 31, 2026, OSEN, October 31, 2026
• [5] Melon TOP100 (checked November 1, 2026, 4 a.m. KST), Kworb Spotify South Korea daily (October 29 chart)
• YouTube views: Return YouTube Dislike API and YouTube search counts (November 1, 2026, 4:52 a.m. KST)