Blackpink is a South Korean girl group formed by YG Entertainment,
The four women of Blackpink, comprise a multilingual performance powerhouse connecting with fans across borders. Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa with a strong fanbase stretching far beyond South Korea.
The group debuted in August 2016 with their single album Square One, which featured "Whistle" and "Boombayah", their first number-one entries on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart and the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart, respectively.
The group’s social media followings are also breaking records. Lisa, the group’s main dancer, and the youngest member is the most-followed female K-pop artist on Instagram with more than 56 million followers.
Why are they called Blackpink?
The group’s name was conceived to contrast with the perception of femininity commonly associated with the color pink. When Blackpink debuted, their label YG Entertainment said the name intends to convey that the group embodies more than beauty.
Who are the members of Blackpink?
Jisoo (Full Name: Kim Jisoo), 24
The oldest member in the group, Jisoo is a singer, often referred to as Blackpink’s mood-maker. She has a quirky sense of humor and a proclivity for generating on-the-spot songs about any topic — from the weather to a craving for chicken skewers. Jisoo acted in a number of music videos and commercials in her pre-Blackpink years. Although she is the only member who does not speak English fluently, the vocalist is nevertheless trilingual, able to speak Korean, Japanese, and Chinese.
Jennie (Full Name: Kim Jennie), 23
Blackpink’s main rapper, who also sings, Jennie was a “trainee” for just shy of six years — the longest of the members. (Under the trainee system in South Korea, aspiring pop idols audition with entertainment agencies to become trainees with the hopes of one day debuting as an artist.) Jennie lived in New Zealand for a period before moving back to South Korea in 2010 and speaks fluent English in addition to Korean and Japanese. She was the first member of Blackpink to release an individual track, titled “SOLO.”
Rosé (Full Name: Park Chaeyoung), 22
Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia — where she participated in YG Entertainment’s auditions and placed first — Rosé is also fluent in English. She is the group’s main singer, and her distinct voice is easy to recognize. Rosé plays the guitar and piano and frequently covers both English and Korean songs. On 12 March 2021 she released her solo Single ON THE GROUND, The album received 400,000 pre-orders within four days; its title refers to a new beginning for the star.
Lisa (Full Name: Lalisa/Pranpriya Manoban), 22
Lisa, the youngest member — known as “maknae” — is the main dancer in Blackpink. Born and raised in Thailand, Lisa was in a dance crew at a young age before she auditioned to become a K-pop idol trainee. Besides Thai, Lisa speaks Korean — which she started to learn after moving to South Korea in 2011 — English, Japanese, and basic Chinese. Although she raps and sings, it is the “focused camera” recordings of Lisa’s dancing, a combination of smooth body rolls, sharp hits, and captivating facial expressions, that often become the subject of Blackpink’s viral videos.
How did Blackpink rise in popularity?
Blackpink officially debuted in 2016 with the single album Square One, which consisted of two songs — “Whistle” and “Boombayah.” The debut was highly anticipated in the K-pop scene as Blackpink was the first girl group to come from YG Entertainment, the major company home to powerhouse groups like BIGBANG and 2NE1, in seven years. “Boombayah” made the group the fastest musical act, at the time, to hit No. 1 on Billboard’s World Digital Songs chart, and their success continued with additional releases in the following year.
In 2018, Blackpink received a new level of international attention when they became the highest-charting K-pop girl group on Billboard with the single “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” and the EP Square Up. “Ddu-Du Ddu Du” hit No. 55 on the Billboard Hot 100 — surpassing Wonder Girls’ English version of the song “Nobody” which peaked at No. 76 in 2009 — while Square Up hit No. 40 on the Billboard 200. A few months later, the group collaborated with Dua Lipa on the track “Kiss and Make Up,” reaching a new audience with a bilingual song that currently has more than 200 million streams on Spotify.
The potential for a more global footprint became apparent when Blackpink signed with Interscope Records and Universal Music Group. YG Entertainment partnered with the label with the goal of promoting the group internationally.
How did Blackpink become so popular on social media?
With every new release, Blackpink’s following on social media has grown. Not only is Lisa the most-followed K-pop female idol on Instagram, but Blackpink has the most-followed K-pop group account on the platform with 39.9 million followers, as of August 2021. Leading up to the release of “Kill This Love,” the teaser photos of the individual members sporting new hair colors and serving sinister looks each received more than two million likes on the official account. On Twitter, the signature phrase from the group’s debut song “Boombayah” — “Blackpink in your area” — is regularly trending as Blackpink announces new plans to, quite literally, enter the areas of international fans.
Comments