Blackpink in America

Korean Pop was first noticed in the U.S. in 2012 when Psy’s “Gangnam Style” became the first video on YouTube to have a billion streams. When it was released it was something new and unfamiliar to us. Over the past decade, Korean Pop has become more well-known with many groups touring in America. After almost three years since their debut, BlackPink will finally step foot on American soil for the first time.

The four-member group consisting of Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa, made their official debut in August 2016 with their songs “Boombayah” and “Whistle.” They landed number one and two on Billboard’s World Digital Songs Chart and combined with a total of 6.2 million views in the first 24 hours of the music videos. This makes BlackPink the record holder of the fastest girl group act to hit number one on the charts. In November 2016 they released “Playing With Fire” and “Stay” collecting 6.8 million views and in June 2017 they released “As If It’s Your Last” with 13.3 million views alone in 24 hours.

After a year-long hiatus, BlackPink announced their comeback “Square Up,” which was released in June of 2018 with their hit title track, “Ddu-Du-Ddu-Du-Du.” The music video has numerous records, making it the most-watched music video by a Korean group on YouTube with more than 700 million views upon its release. With “Ddu-Du-Ddu-Du” alone, BlackPink has won a total of 93 PAKS. Today, it is now the most viewed music video between girl and boy groups with 143 million views.

Headlines from Forbes, Rolling Stone, and Billboard read as “Korea’s Biggest Girl Group” after their success. One would think that such a successful group would have toured in America already, however, that was not the case. Then BlackPink signed with Interscope Records and Universal Music Group in order to make the group global stars. “The music and visuals are so immediately striking and different from anything else happening in pop music. We are beyond excited to partner with YG in pursuit of their vision for BlackPink world domination,” said Interscope in a Billboard interview. Signing with these companies gave BlackPink a flexible way to come overseas and prepare for their U.S. promotions. The news stirred up positive emotions from Blinks, the groups fandom name, because Interscope has built careers for big names like Kendrick Lamar, Ariana Grande, and Eminem.

August marks the four-year anniversary since BlackPink’s debut and some Blinks wonder why it took them so long to finally come to America, “I think it’s great especially for their international fanbase,” said Sydney Hencil, a BlackPink fan since 2017, “The fact that they are finally coming to America allows their American fans to finally see them because we don’t have the luxury to go to Korea to see them.” BlackPink has already placed their mark on 2019 and are on their way to becoming “international superstars” and it all began with the announcement of their performance at Coachella 2019, “We got invited to perform at Coachella, which is unbelievable and we’re really, really excited!” said BLACKPINK’s Rose during the Good Morning America appearance. Coachella is one of the biggest music festivals that are held in California every summer with over 125,000 people attending each year.

But that is just the beginning of their big surprises. On Feb. 11, 2019, BlackPink made their debut U.S. television performance on Good Morning America. On Feb. 12, 2019 they made an appearance on The Late Show. Blinks were happy to see the group finally step out of Korea and make their U.S. debut. “It’s their first time performing in the U.S. and they did so great,” and “I’m so proud of them, they freaking killed it and now we should get ready for Good Morning America in a few hours, cannot wait,” said @chichuchikin and @jenniesvoice, two Blinks on Twitter. During The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Twitter Blinks trended the hashtag #BLACKPINKonLSSC worldwide with over 120,000,000 Tweets.

Since BlackPink was already in the country for Coachella, their fans thought this would be a great time for them to do a North American tour. Fortunately BlackPink thought the same and during their interview on Good Morning America, they hinted to some exciting news dropping on their social media after the show. Once the live show ended, their official Instagram account released details on their North American Tour.

BlackPink’s catchphrase, “BlackPink in Your Area” is coming true with their North American tour. In March 24, 2019, the group announced their new mini-album, “Kill This Love,” to be released on April 5 and have been in the studio every day for a week. There is no doubt BlackPink will make history by breaking more records with their new album.