Even though Lay hasn’t been in an EXO music video since “Monster” was released in 2016, there has never been an announcement that he’s no longer a member of the group. In fact, he has participated in the group’s albums since then — including their most recent one, Don’t Fight the Feeling, in 2021 — and even though he announced his departure from SM Entertainment about a year ago, he also promised he’d be available whenever the EXO members needed him.
For years, EXO fans have held onto the hope that he would someday return to active promotions with the rest of the group’s members, despite his successful solo career in his home country of China and departure from SM Entertainment. However, netizens have now become confused about Lay’s status with both EXO and SM Entertainment due to something discovered on the Korean entertainment label’s website.
Under SM Entertainment’s artists page on their website, every group and individual that works under the label is included from singers to actors and models, and even athletes. When you click on the link for EXO on this list, it leads to a page that includes all of the members and units within the group. Lay is not on this page, leaving only the other eight members and two sub-units listed.
While one might assume he’s not included because he’s no longer under SM Entertainment, it turns out that he is still listed as an individual artist on the artist page on the website outside of EXO.
If you click on his profile, it does lead to a page that no longer exists on the website, so it’s possible that he just hasn’t been removed from the artists page yet. But this revelation has still left many fans confused and questioning what Lay’s status with EXO and SM Entertainment is.
The image of his artist profile was shared on an online Korean forum, where netizens shared their clear confusion and different theories in the comments.
- “I think so? Lay makes so much money, it’s a win for SM too”
- “Yup, I think so”
- “He would come up on EXO’s official forum even while promoting as a soloist before, but after last year, he hasn’t, so he’s definitely left… Considering how he still comes up on SM’s official forum I think he still has ties with SM”
- “Probably? Lay’s workshop was first something like SM China Label or something. I’m not sure if he’s under main SM but I think he’s still in SM somehow”
- “Omg!! I thought his contract with SM expired… I see”
- “Oh, so you’re saying that his contract did expire but he transferred to an affiliate label?”
- “I saw that one of the Boys Planet trainees was in Lay’s agency. Does that mean that agency is a retained label under SM?”
- “Wow when did he leave [the group]?”
- “Wow, but it said in the statement about him leaving the group that he was parting ways with SM”
- “SM later released a statement saying that they renewed his contract in a different way and he renewed his contract with the agency”
International fans are also bewildered over the situation, with many hoping for some clarification from SM Entertainment or Lay himself about the situation.
We’ll have to wait and see if either party does end up speaking up about Lay’s status before we really know what’s going on!
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