aespa’s Karina on Lollapalooza, Stage Nerves, and Personal Strength

aespa member Karina recently opened up about her group’s recent appearance at Lollapalooza 2026 and their ongoing world commitments in an exclusive interview with ELLE Korea, which will be featured in the publication’s September issue. The conversation provided rare insight into the group’s preparation methodology for major festival performances, Karina’s personal philosophy about managing performance anxiety, and her perspective on what touring means beyond the stage itself.

Intensive Preparation for Lollapalooza 2026

The Festival’s Significance for aespa

When discussing aespa’s performance at Lollapalooza 2026 in Chicago, Karina emphasized both the significance of the opportunity and the dedication the group invested in their preparation. She explained that “It was a performance we prepared for with a lot of dedication. Since it had been a while since we performed at a festival, all the members practiced late into the night to do their best in their respective roles.”

The festival appearance represented a substantial comeback to the major festival circuit after an extended absence from that performance format. This gap made the preparation period particularly demanding for the group, as each member needed to recalibrate their festival performance skills alongside their regular concert schedule. The extended rehearsal sessions, stretching into late evening, reflected the seriousness with which aespa approached the Lollapalooza slot and the competitive stakes involved in performing at one of North America’s most prominent music festivals.

Strategic Setlist Curation for Maximum Impact

Beyond intensive physical and vocal rehearsals, aespa’s creative approach to the Lollapalooza performance centered on deliberate song selection. Karina revealed that the group “wanted to create an exciting performance by putting together a set list centered around songs we haven’t performed often before.” This strategic decision highlighted deeper cuts and lesser-performed tracks from their extensive catalogue, tracks that rarely receive live performance opportunities in their typical concert settings.

By rotating less-frequently performed material into their festival slot, aespa aimed to deepen fan engagement while introducing North American festival audiences—many of whom may not be regular concert attendees—to different dimensions of their musical range and artistry. The curated approach required not only additional rehearsal time but also careful consideration of how these selected tracks would translate to a festival environment expecting high-energy performances.

Nervousness as a Performance Asset

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Reframing Pre-Stage Anxiety Into Competitive Advantage

Karina discussed her personal relationship with performance anxiety, offering a perspective that repositions nervousness not as a performance liability but as an essential emotional state that enhances her work. “Nervousness is also one of the precious emotions that humans can experience,” she stated during the ELLE Korea interview. Rather than viewing pre-stage jitters as something to eliminate through breathing exercises or affirmations, Karina has learned to interpret them as meaningful markers of genuine emotional engagement with her craft.

She elaborated further on how this mindset directly influences her actual performance outcomes: “When I’m nervous, I actually make fewer mistakes. It comes from thoughts like, ‘What if I make a mistake?’ or ‘What if I don’t live up to expectations?’ So I don’t think there’s necessarily anything bad about going on stage while feeling nervous.”

The Psychology Behind Enhanced Precision

Karina’s observation reflects established psychological principles about optimal arousal and performance: moderate levels of anxiety can sharpen cognitive focus and elevate physical precision during complex tasks. The “what-if” thoughts that typically characterize pre-performance nervousness, in her experience, translate into heightened awareness and attentiveness onstage. This internal dialogue creates a state of heightened vigilance that, paradoxically, reduces mistakes and inconsistencies in execution.

Rather than adopting affirmations or coping strategies designed to eliminate nervousness entirely, Karina has embraced a perspective that acknowledges nervousness as a sign of commitment and care. This reframing allows her to channel anxious energy productively, transforming it into fuel for enhanced performance rather than fighting against it as an unwanted obstacle.

The 2026-27 World Tour and Expanded Perspective on Touring

Beyond the Stage: Exploring Cities as Part of the Journey

Looking ahead to aespa’s continuing world tour branded “2026-27 aespa LIVE TOUR – SYNK : COMPLæXITY,” Karina emphasized dimensions of the touring experience that extend far beyond performances themselves. She shared with ELLE Korea: “I usually like to leave the hotel and experience the city where the tour is being held for myself. Just as the word ‘tour’ also means ‘travel,’ I always look forward to visiting places I might never have gone to and experiencing things I might never have experienced if I weren’t doing this work.”

This perspective treats touring as a genuine opportunity for cultural exploration and personal growth rather than simply a series of performances bookended by hotel stays and airport transfers. Each tour stop becomes a dedicated window for discovering neighborhoods, sampling local cuisine, visiting landmarks, and absorbing the cultural nuances specific to that geographic location.

Travel as Personal and Professional Development

For Karina, the touring cycle represents an unusual privilege: the combination of geographic mobility and some degree of schedule flexibility opens doors that typical tourism or casual travel often doesn’t facilitate. These moments of city exploration between performances and rehearsals provide essential counterbalance to the intensity and isolation that can accompany onstage work. The spaces created for local exploration offer opportunities for reflection, cultural immersion, and personal expansion that feed back into artistic development.

On Strength and Personal Conviction

When ELLE Korea asked Karina to define what “being strong” means to her on a personal level, she offered a definition centered on internal consistency and self-knowledge rather than external displays of toughness or dominance. She expressed: “I think it’s similar to having strong convictions. Having strong convictions means that your standards or values aren’t easily shaken. It means clearly knowing yourself and having a strong sense of self. That’s why I like being called strong.”

This articulation positions strength as rooted fundamentally in self-knowledge and value clarity—internal anchors that remain stable regardless of external circumstances, criticism, or shifting opinions from others. Karina associates the quality of strength not with emotional stoicism, dominance over others, or ability to withstand pain, but rather with the psychological resilience that comes from understanding one’s own principles deeply and remaining committed to them. Her definition suggests that personal strength emerges from a foundation of self-awareness and conviction, allowing individuals to navigate complex professional and personal situations without becoming derailed by external validation-seeking or compromising core values.

The full pictorial and interview conducted by ELLE Korea will appear in the magazine’s September issue, offering expanded insight into Karina’s perspectives on performance, touring, personal growth, and the mindset she brings to her work with aespa.