Blackpink's name means pretty isn't everything, and the label nearly launched nine members
YG Entertainment spent six years auditioning preteens and teenagers worldwide before unveiling a new girl group in 2016. The plan had been nine members; the label settled on four, rejected names such as Pink Punk and Magnum, and chose Blackpink, meant to say that pretty isn't everything.
Recruitment began in 2010, a year after YG launched its first big girl group, 2NE1. The trainees describe a full-time pop-star academy: Jennie called it stricter than school, and Rosé likened it to The X Factor with dormitories. The members were revealed one at a time in June 2016, starting with Jennie, who had moved back to South Korea from New Zealand and joined as a trainee in 2010, and ending with Rosé. The four, Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa, became YG's first new girl group in seven years.
Their debut single album, Square One, arrived on August 8, 2016. Its two songs, Boombayah and Whistle, took the top two spots on Billboard's World Digital Song Sales chart, faster than any act before them. Fans were christened Blinks, a blend of black and pink, in January 2017, and that July a Tokyo showcase at the Nippon Budokan drew more than 14,000 people while about 200,000 tried to buy tickets.
The global breakthrough came in 2018 with Ddu-Du Ddu-Du, which no Korean girl group had matched before: it reached the British singles chart and won certification from the RIAA. The Album in 2020 became the first by a Korean girl group to sell a million copies, and Born Pink in 2022 doubled that, topping the Billboard 200 and the UK chart. Its lead single, Pink Venom, was the first girl group song to lead the Billboard Global 200.
The numbers since are enormous: over 40 billion streams, 20 million records, and the title of most-subscribed music act on YouTube, the first to pass 100 million subscribers. Many publications call them the biggest girl group in the world, and a leading face of the girl crush style in K-pop, built around confidence and female empowerment.
Source: Blackpink
