aespa Winter 'Saddle Up': Billboard Korea Debut at No. 25
Winter's solo track "Saddle Up" entered Billboard Korea's Global K-Songs chart at No. 25 this week, nine days after its release - and she wasn't the only aespa member to show up on the list. Karina's "16 Bit" debuted one spot lower at No. 31 on the same chart, dated September 23.
Both songs come from SYNK: COMPLÆXITY - 2026 Special Digital Single, the four-track release SM Entertainment put out September 14 collecting the solo songs Winter, Karina, Giselle and Ningning each debuted live at aespa's Seoul concert on August 7 and 8, the opening stop of their SYNK: COMPLÆXITY world tour. Giselle's "BYEB4HELLO" and Ningning's "I Love You But I Gotta Let You Go" round out the single. SM Entertainment has described "Saddle Up" as Winter's statement that actions speak louder than words - a theme the group's Korean promotion materials tied directly to the song's title.
"Saddle Up" leans harder than its title suggests. Reviewing aespa's September 18 stop at UBS Arena in New York, Billboard described the track as a "heavy, rhythmic pop cut" that offered "one of the night's most ferocious performances" - not the country-pop turn some fans expected from the name. Karina's "16 Bit," meanwhile, had already reached No. 45 on the Worldwide iTunes Song Chart within a day of its release.
This isn't the first time an aespa solo cut has found its own footing. Karina's 2024 solo track "Up," from the group's earlier Synk: Parallel Line single, became her first top-10 hit on the Circle Digital Chart and won her a Show! Music Core trophy - her first as a soloist, before she'd technically debuted as one. Winter's "Saddle Up" is now tracking a similar path, charting nationally before either woman has released anything under her name alone.
The tour that produced these songs keeps moving. aespa played Washington, D.C.'s Capital One Arena on September 22 and heads to Atlanta's State Farm Arena on September 24, with "Saddle Up" and "16 Bit" both built into the set as solo showcase moments. The group's Latin American leg last month drew more than 21,000 fans to a show in São Paulo - the largest crowd a fourth-generation K-pop girl group has drawn in Brazil, and the second-largest for any K-pop girl group there.
Where "Saddle Up" goes from its No. 25 debut depends on next week's chart. For now, Winter has company at the top of aespa's four-way solo experiment - and a number of her own to defend.
