The name “Blackpink” means that the group has two sides. She not only offers beauty but also tons of talent. The members Lisa, Rosé, Jennie and Jisoo live up to the name: Since their debut, they have not only been inspiring people with their music, but are now also considered fashion icons and have all even established themselves as solo artists!
Blackpink is the most famous K-pop girl group in the world and there is hardly anyone who hasn't heard of them. Nevertheless, it is easy to forget individual milestones and highlights. That's why today we're taking a look back at Blackpink's path to success:
- Creation (Pre-debut)
- The members
- Debüt (2016)
- Japan Debut & Other Records (2017-2018)
- The most important milestones (2019 to today)
- Solo career
- Discography - All Blackpink albums at a glance
Creation (Pre-debut)
Back in 2011, YG Entertainment announced plans for a new girl group. Expectations were high because YG was already considered one of the biggest K-pop labels in South Korea and was home to big stars such as the boy band Big Bang and the girl group 2NE1.
However, the plans for the girl group were repeatedly postponed and in 2014 YG debuted a new boy group called Winner, followed by iKON in 2015. In June 2016 the time had finally come: YG introduced the four members of Blackpink one by one: Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo and Rosé.
The members
The 4 girls were perhaps not entirely unknown to fans at the time, as they were all introduced as trainees of YG Entertainment in 2012 and, for example, appeared in music videos by artists from the same agency or even had a singing part in their songs.
G-Dragon's song "Black" in 2013 was recorded together with Jennie. She even sang it with him on the music show Inkigayo! Jenni also appeared in G-Dragon's music video "That XX" and can also be heard on the song "Special" from Lee Hi's 2013 album "First Love".
Lisa was the first foreign trainee in YG Entertainment; She was the only one out of 4,000 applicants from Thailand to pass the audition and move to Korea! She appeared in the music video for BigBang's Taeyang's "Ringa Linga" in 2013, albeit only in the background, and promoted YG's fashion brand Nona9on and cosmetics brand Moonshot before her debut.
Jisoo appeared in various commercials and music videos, such as "Im Different" by the unit "Hi Suhyun", consisting of AKMU's Suhyun and Lee Hi. She also made a guest appearance in the K-drama “The Producers” with other YG Entertainment artists in 2015.
In 2012 “Without You” by G-Dragon feat “? Of YG New Girl Group”. “?” later turned out to be rosé.
| Artist name | Real name | Birthday | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lisa | Lalisa Manoban | 27.03.1997 | Main Dancer, Lead Rapper, Maknae |
| Jennie | Jennie Kim | 16.01.1996 | Main Rapper, Lead Vocal |
| Jisoo | Kim Jisoo | 03.01.1995 | Lead Vocal, Visual |
| Rosé | Roseanne Park | 11.02.1997 | Main Vocal, Lead Dancer |
The group's debut, which had been planned for years, finally became a reality in 2016:
On August 8th, Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo and Rosé announced for the first time that Blackpink was in our area in their debut single “Boombayah” from the album “Square One”!
Blackpink announced their fandom name “BLINK” back in November 2016. Since then, fans have proudly called themselves “BLINKs”. The name is a combination of “Black” and “Pink,” meaning fans start and end with Blackpink.
The phrase “Blackpink in Your Area” quickly became an iconic saying, as it was heard in many of the group's music videos, concerts and performances after Boombayah.
With various records, Blackpink showed early on that they have the potential to reach the top!
“Boombayah” and “Whistle,” the two songs from her debut single album “Square One,” ranked No. 1 and No. 2 on Billboard’s World Digital Song Charts; No one before you has ever achieved this so quickly after its debut! They also became only the third Korean artist to hold both top positions at the same time. With their victory in the music show “Inkigayo” on August 21st, Blackpink broke another record: they won the show 13 days after their debut. No other girl group had ever taken first place so quickly after their debut!
Before the year ended, the second single album “Square Two” was released. It reached #2 on Billboard's World Albums Chart and stayed there for 22 weeks! With the title song “Playing with Fire,” Blackpink also topped Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales Chart for the second time.
After all these successes, it was no wonder that the girl group was awarded all the rookie awards at the awards shows at the end of the year! Billboard also named Blackpink one of the best new K-pop groups of 2016.
The first few months could hardly have gone better: In the short time since their debut, Blackpink have attracted attention and made a name for themselves both in Korea and internationally!
In 2017, Blackpink also debuted in Japan.
The digital single “As If It’s Your Last” was first released in June 2017. The music video broke the record for most likes by a K-pop girl group in the first 24 hours!
A year after their debut in Korea, Blackpink released their first Japanese album, called “Blackpink” like the group itself. The Japanese fans were also enthusiastic and catapulted the album to the top of the Oricon album charts. Oricon is one of the biggest Japanese charts in Japan and Blackpink were only the third non-Japanese artist to top the chart with their debut album!
2018 was packed with albums, concerts and of course other records!
Blackpink didn't rest on their laurels but worked hard to always offer their fans something new. Blackpink's first reality show "Blackpink House" began in January, which spanned many months and ended in August.
In addition, Lisa, Jennie, Rosé and Jisoo also held concerts in Japan as part of their first Japan tour “Blackpink Arena Tour” in 2018. The demand for tickets was so great that two more dates were even added! And as if that wasn't enough, Lisa, Jennie, Rosé and Jisoo set off on their first world tour “In Your Area World Tour” that same year. The tour ran through 2019 and didn't end until 2020! She took the girl group not only to Asia, but also North America, Europe and Australia. Of course, Blackpink also set a new record: It was the highest-grossing tour by a K-pop girl group ever!
Fans could also look forward to new music:
In 2018, Blackpink will present, among other things, the second Japanese album “Re: Blackpink”, a new edition of the first album “Blackpink”. This was followed by the first Korean mini album “Square Up” (June 15th), the Japanese single “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” (August 22nd) and the first Japanese compilation album “Blackpink In Your Area” (November 23rd). .
The members of Blackpink also appeared on Dua Lipa's new single "Kiss and Make-Up" in October.
Square Up was particularly successful: The album topped Billboard's World Albums Chart and Blackpink became the first female K-pop artist to reach the top of the Emerging Artist Chart! The title track “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” topped both the US and UK charts and the video was viewed 36.2 million times in the first 24 hours. In November 2019, the music video was even considered the most viewed video by a K-pop group ever!
But even though so many exciting things happened, an event followed in November that was even more exciting for many fans: Jennie made her solo debut with the single “Solo”! And it was a complete success: Jennie topped several charts such as Gaon's Digital Chart and Billboard's K-Pop Hot 100 and stayed in the top spots for many weeks!
With the project, Jennie had the chance to show more of her talent and proved that she can conquer the stage on her own. Of course, this raised anticipation for the other members' solo debuts, but it took over two years before Rosé and Lisa followed their example. Jisoo even made her solo debut at the end of March 2023.
2019 to today
Both as a group and individually, Jennie, Jisoo, Rosé and Lisa have celebrated many groundbreaking successes. So many that we can hardly list them all! So we have picked out the most interesting milestones of the following years for you:
In 2019, Blackpink appeared in many American shows such as “Universal Music Group’s 2029 Grammy Artist Showcase”, “The Late Show” and “Good Morning America”. The girl group had stormed international charts before, but 2019 marked another breakthrough. This was also made clear by the fact that Blackpink became the first K-pop girl group ever to grace the cover of Billboard magazine in March and were also the first K-pop girl group to be invited to perform at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in California!
The second mini album “Kill This Love” was released on April 5, 2019, including the title song of the same name. Like its predecessor “Square Up,” it topped Billboard’s World Album Chart. Blackpink had already taken first place twice in a row. The music video also broke the record for most views on YouTube in the first 24 hours. Fans around the world watched the video 56.7 million times!
2020
In May 2020, Blackpink released the single “Sour Candy” together with Lady Gaga. It was the girl group's second collaboration, a year and a half after working with Dua Lipa. “Sour Candy” peaked at number 33 on the Billboard Top 100 chart.; the highest chart position for Blackpink in the United States to date. The girl group broke this personal record that same year with “Ice Cream,” a single created in collaboration with Selena Gomez that reached number thirteen on the Billboard Top 100. “Ice Cream” was released as a single on August 28th, 2020, but is also included on the studio album “The Album”, which was released on October 2nd.
“The Album” is Blackpink's first studio album, four years after their debut. In addition to “Ice Cream,” it also includes the title track “Lovesick Girls” and the single “How You Like That,” which was released on June 26th. The music video broke several Guinness World Records, including the most viewed video in the first 24 hours with a total of 86.3 million views. It was clicked another 30 million times more than “Kill This Love” in 2019! With the single, Blackpink also became the first female K-pop artist to win the “Song of the Summer” award at the “MTV Video Music Awards”.
The album set the record for the most albums sold by a K-pop girl group in the first week of release. On the first day, fans bought 590 thousand copies and after a week an incredible 1.54 million copies had already been sold! Blackpink became the first K-pop girl group to ever sell one million copies of an album! Today, K-Pop artists continue to surpass each other with new record numbers, but Blackpink can still be very proud of this milestone.
Fans who would like to spend an evening watching TV with Blackpink were also served, as the girl group released their first documentary “Blackpink: Light Up The Sky” on Netflix in 2020 and their reality show “24/365 with Blackpink” on YouTube. All four members came up with a potential title for the reality show and fans took to Instagram to vote for their favorite. Lisa's idea went against “Behind The Pinks” (Rosé), “BLACKPINK Log” (Jisoo) and “BLACKPINK is?” (Jennie) through. You can watch all 16 episodes of “24/365 with Blackpink” here:
2021
This was followed in August 2021 by the documentary “Blackpink: The Movie,” which was broadcast in cinemas around the world. Among other things, it takes fans behind the scenes of the “In Your Are World Tour,” which ended in February 2020 15 months after it began in November 2018.
But 2021 was above all a year of solo debuts. With Rosé and Lisa, two members of Blackpink took a new step:
Rosé started with her single album “R” in March. In just a few days, the album broke several records: “R” sold 448 thousand copies in its first week, more than any other album by a female K-pop solo artist. Rosé also became the first Korean solo artist to top the Billboard Global 200 chart, and the music video for title track “On The Ground” was viewed more times in the first 24 hours than any other music video by a Korean solo artist. The last two records even made it into the Guinness Book of Records.
Lisa already had more followers than any other K-pop artist in 2019, so it was clear in advance that her solo debut would be a bombshell. With the single album “Lalisa” in September, Lisa broke several of the records that Rosé had set just months earlier. She sold more albums in the first week and her music video for “Money” was viewed even more in the first 24 hours than Rosé’s “On The Ground.” Lalisa also became the first Korean solo artist to reach one trillion streams on Spotify!
2022 & 2023
In September 2022, Blackpink finally returned as a group after almost two years. This time Jennie, Lisa and Co. present their second studio album “Born Pink”. And although the singers have already set and broken countless records, they were able to celebrate completely new successes with “Born Pink”! They were the first girl group to top the Billboard Global 200 chart, first with the pre-release single “Pink Venom” and then again with the title song “Shut Down”. They also became the first girl group to sell 2 million copies of their album. And those are just a few of “Born Pink’s” achievements.
In October, Blackpink embarked on their second world tour, “Born Pink World Tour,” which toured North America, Europe, Asia and Australia and lasted almost a year. It ended after more than 60 concerts in September 2023. The tour grossed more money than any other tour by a female group before and attracted 1.8 million viewers!
In March 2023, the last member, Jisoo, finally made her solo debut. Jisoo released the single album “ME” on March 31st and sold more than a million copies in just two days! This makes Jisoo the first Korean solo artist to break the million mark. To date (as of November 2023), “ME” is the best-selling album by a Korean solo artist of all time!
As you can see, Blackpink is not considered the most successful girl group in the world for nothing!
Solo career
As already mentioned, all four members of Blackpink have now debuted solo and are also very successful on their own. The members are not only active in the music industry, but also show their talent in various other areas:
Lisa
Since 2020, Lisa has presented an annual photo book consisting of her own photographs. They all have the number “0327” in the title, a reference to Lisa’s birthday on March 27th.
Lisa is also the ambassador of various fashion brands such as the French luxury brand “Celine”, “Penshoppe” and the Italian luxury brand “Bulgari”. In addition, the idol was a dance mentor in the Chinese survival show “Youth With You” (Season 2 & 3) in 2020 and 2021 and impressed fans there with her tough criticism and strictness towards the trainees, especially because she was also in the right moments Distributed praise and motivation.
Jennie
For her solo debut, Jennie was not only involved in the music, but also the outfits, the concept and the choreography. She put together more than 20 outfits for her music video! Because of her fashion sense, she has been invited to several fashion events and was invited to be an ambassador for “House of Channel”.
Jennie was also the first Korean model for “Bucheron Paris”, a 160-year-old luxury jewelry brand.
Rosé
Rosé was named the first global ambassador of “Yves Saint Laurent” in 59 years in 2020 and this year the global ambassador of the jewelry brand “Tiffany & Co.”
She is also in the Guinness Book of Records for topping the Billboard Global Charts both solo and as part of a group. She is the first Korean artist to achieve this!
Jisoo
Like the others, Jisoo is also interested in fashion and was appointed local ambassador of “Dior” in 2019.
As the only member of Blackpink to date, she is also currently building an acting career. After guest appearances in music videos and a brief appearance in the K-drama “Arthdal Chronicles,” Jisoo even starred in the series “Snowdrop”!
Discography - All Blackpink albums at a glance:
Blackpink have released eight Korean albums, five Japanese albums and one compilation album in the more than seven years since their debut. This is relatively small compared to other idol groups who usually make a comeback in Korea several times a year. Maybe that's why fans are particularly excited for every new song from the band to add to their playlist!
| Album | Format | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| Square One | Single Album | August 2016 |
| Square Two | Single Album | November 2016 |
| Blackpink (Jap.) | Mini Album | August 2017 |
| Re: Blackpink (Jap.) | Mini Album | March 2018 |
| Square Up | Mini Album | June 2018 |
| Ddu-Du Ddu-Du (Jap.) | Single Album | August 2018 |
| Blackpink in Your Area (Jap.) | Compilation Album | December 2018 |
| Kill This Love | Mini Album | April 2019 |
| Kill This Love (Jap.) | Mini Album | October 2019 |
| How You Like That | Single Album | July 2020 |
| The Album | Studio Album | October 2020 |
| The Album (Jap.) | Studio Album | August 2021 |
| Born Pink | Studio Album | September 2022 |
| The Girls | Single Album | August 2023 |
