ITZY’s Yeji and aespa’s Karina’s adorable interaction at MAMA goes viral

Prominent fourth-generation girl groups ITZY and aespa have made headlines in the past for their adorable display of friendship. MAMA (Mnet Asian Music Awards) recently released a behind-the-scenes video of the fourth-generation collaboration performance, and fans noticed a cute interaction between Yeji and Karina.

Both idols shared a light moment pretending to be each other’s fans and together danced to ‘SOS for this kitty’ line from ITZY’s song LOCO. In an industry where idol interactions grow scarce every day, the short clip went viral soon enough.

MAMA’s behind-the-scenes video captures aespa’s Karina and ITZY’s Yeji’s friendship

2021 MAMA’s behind-the-scenes video gave fans a much-awaited idol interaction. One of them was the SM Entertainment and JYP Entertainment girl groups aespa and ITZY. The two groups have talked about each other and their blossoming friendships on various livestreams, but MAMA’s video gave fans another adorable public interaction.

In the clip, Karina walks towards a sitting Yeji. As soon as Yeji notices her, she flashes the lightstick in her hand and tells her she’s a MY (aespa’s fandom name). Reciprocating her love, Karina did Yeji’s iconic ‘SOS for this kitty’ dance move. The idols giggled and danced together on that line.

The video went viral as fans couldn’t get over the K-pop idols’ sweet interaction. They shared and re-shared the clips expressing their happiness at seeing the two famous fourth-generation idols supporting each other.

In the next scene, Karina shared that Yeji was her only celebrity friend, and she was happy to get an opportunity to share the stage. She even added that they used to joke about a collaboration, but MAMA’s fourth-generation collab made it turn into a reality.

In the recent past, ITZY’s Ryujin revealed how the group became friends with SM Entertainment's new girl group. It all started with the former buying watermelon juice for the latter in June last year during the Dream Concert.

Since then, the two powerhouse groups have solidified their friendship, which was also seen during Music Core. Despite aespa’s Savage taking the win against ITZY’s LOCO, Ryujin stayed back to celebrate with them for some time on stage, which won fans' hearts. The 2021 MAMA interaction going viral shows that fans love their group interactions as well.

The fourth-generation collaboration at 2021 MAMA included solo opening performances from Yeji, Karina, ATEEZ’s Wooyoung, TXT’s Yeonjun, Stray Kids’ Hyunjin, and ENHYPEN’s Heeseung. The behind-the-scenes video also gave a glimpse of the two best friends, Wooyoung and Yeonjun’s interaction.

About the author

Afreen has been a K-Pop Content Specialist at Sportskeeda since 2021. She holds a Bachelor's degree in English Literature, along with a Post-Graduate Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication. Afreen has over 4+ years of working in various positions including being an entertainment content writer with Pinkvilla’s K-pop division Hallyutalk and CineDope, and as a copywriter at Flying Cursor.

As per Afreen, she loves her work because she gets to write about the things she is obsessed with. Her thorough research and following the two-genuine-source rule of journalism helps her produce the most accurate content, along with helping her be up-to-date with the industry.

Afreen has had the privilege to interview The Rose's frontrunner, WOOSUNG, and LIONESSES, K-pop's first openly LGBTQ+ group. She is a big fan of SEVENTEEN, Stray Kids, BTS, and The Rose for their hard work, sincerity, and the comic relief their shows provide.

When she is off her shift, Afreen explores the streets of Nottingham in the UK, cooks, and listens to new music.

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