SM Entertainment has shared this year’s edition of its annual end-of-year compilation, ‘2022 Winter SMTOWN: SMCU Palace’.
The album sees artists from across the label – including members of Red Velvet, EXO, Girls’ Generation, aespa, NCT, SHINee, Super Junior, TVXQ and soloists Kangta and BoA – team up in new combinations.
‘SMCU Palace’ features the title track ‘The Cure’, which according to a press release, “shares a message of solidarity with the global movement to combat climate change”. Soloists and group leaders Kangta, BoA, TVXQ’s U-Know, Super Junior’s Leeteuk, Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon, SHINee’s Onew, EXO’s Suho, Red Velvet’s Irene, NCT’s Taeyong, Mark and Kun, and aespa’s Karina appear on the song.
Elsewhere, the Red Velvet and aespa collaboration ‘Beautiful Christmas’, which was shared earlier in the month, also features on the tracklist, alongside ‘Hot & Cold’, a pop-dance song starring EXO’s Kai, Red Velvet’s Seulgi, NCT’s Jeno and aespa’s Karina. A “stage video” has been released for the latter, finding the four artists performing it live in front of a wintry, grand backdrop of a palace.
The tracklist for ‘2022 Winter SMTOWN: SMCU Palace’ is as follows:
‘Welcome To SMCU Palace’
‘The Cure’
‘Hot & Cold’
‘Beautiful Christmas’
‘Jet’
‘Priority’
‘원 (Time After Time)’
‘난 어디에 (Where You Are)’
‘Happier’
‘Good To Be Alive’
On January 1, SM’s artists will hold the free livestream concert ‘2023 SMTOWN LIVE: SMCU Palace @Kwangya’, performing tracks from the album. The show will be available to stream on SMTOWN’s YouTube channel and Beyond Live.
Meanwhile, the label has confirmed that the supergroup GOT The Beat will make their first comeback in January, a year after they debuted with ‘Step Back’. The sub-unit consists of BoA, Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon and Hyoyeon, Red Velvet’s Seulgi and Wendy, and aespa’s Winter and Karina.
Speaking to NME in October, Seulgi reflected on being a part of GOT The Beat. “I was really honoured to be invited to be a part of that project and this cross-generational group is the kind of combination you can only see at SM Entertainment,” she said. “Seeing the fresh, young, energetic vibe from aespa and the professional experiences and well-developed skills from Girls’ Generation and BoA in the same place was an amazing opportunity.”