South Korean girl band Blackpink has become a globally famous K-pop band.
They are well known for their contributions to K-pop, but where did it all start and what else have they gone on to achieve?
Here are 35 fun facts about Blackpink that you should know.
Blackpink consists of 4 members; Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa and they debuted on August 8, 2016.
Jisoo’s full name is Kim Ji-soo. She is 29 years old and was born January 3, 1995, in Gunpo, Gyeonggi. In 2011 she joined YG Entertainment and featured on TV from 2015.
In 2011 before Blackpink was formed, Jisoo featured in advertisements for LG Electronics, Nikon, and Samsonite.
Jennie’s full name is Kim Jennie. She is 28 years old and was born on January 16, 1996, in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. She studied in New Zealand between the ages of 8 and 13.
As well as singing, Jennie is also a rapper and has taken influence from artists such as TLC, Lauryn Hill, and Rihanna.
Roseanne Park, known to fans as Rosé is 27 years old and was born on February 11, 1997. She trained with YG Entertainment for 4 years before she announced she was going to be a member of Blackpink.
In an interview, Rosé expressed that American singer-songwriter Tori Kelly was an inspiration to her musical style.
Lisa’s birthname is Pranpriya Manoban, she is 27 years old and was born March 27, 1997, in the Buriram Province in Thailand. She legally changed her name to Lalisa.
Lisa started dancing at the age of 4, competing in contests such as “To Be Number One.” She was part of the dance group We Zaa Cool alongside 11 other dancers, including the likes of BamBam from the Korean boy band Got7.
Blackpink’s first release was the single album “Square One.” It included the songs “Boombayah” and “Whistle.” Whistle sold around 2,500,000 in South Korea alone.
A month after their debut, on August 25, 2016, Blackpink got their first reality TV show offer called Blackpink Reality. It was not aired until January 6, 2018, with 1 season and 12 episodes.
“Square Two” was released as a follow-up on November 1, 2016. This maxi-single contains the song “Playing with Fire” which has had over 2,500,000 certified downloads as of 2020.
Blackpink won one of their first awards, the “Rookie Singer Award” at the Asian Artist Awards in 2016. They went on to win the Style Icon Award at Busan One Asia Festival in 2017.
Blackpink collaborated with Dua Lipa to create their song “Kiss And Make Up” in 2018.
Lisa became a brand ambassador for cosmetics brand Moonshot, in China on March 21, 2018, following her modeling work for them.
In 2018 Blackpink’s YouTube video for their song, “Ddu-du Dhu-du” became the most viewed video on YouTube within 24 hours of being uploaded. It is also the most viewed K-Pop video, gaining 734 million views in just 9 months.
In 2018 Jisoo and Rosé became models for a South Korean makeup brand called Kiss Me.
Korea’s annual music poll Gallup voted Jisoo the 10th most popular idol in South Korea in 2018.
Jennie’s debut of her solo single titled “SOLO” was on November 12, 2018.
Blackpink won the K-Style Icon award from Elle magazine’s “Elle Style Awards” competition in 2018.
In 2018 at the Melon Music Awards; a major music show held in South Korea, Blackpink won 2 awards. These were for the Best Female Dance and for being in the Top 10 Artists.
Following Jennie’s solo career, in 2019 Jennie became the first Korean solo artist to perform at Coachella. The performance was put in the top 10 best acts seen at Coachella that year.
Jisoo was the tenth most followed K-pop idol on Instagram in April 2019, with 12.8 million followers.
Jisoo was then overtaken in the same month in 2019 by fellow member Lisa with a total of 17.4 million followers on Instagram at the time.
On May 11, 2019, Lisa became the brand presenter for the promotion of the Samsung Galaxy S10 in Thailand. She featured in their advert as the model using the S10 to play the game Ragnarok M: Eternal Love.
2019 was the year for Lisa because in May she had her first solo magazine cover on Harper’s Bazaar. All 120,000 copies that were printed sold out; on average around 60,000 copies normally sell.
For two years in a row, Lisa was the winner of the “Person of the Year” award in 2018 and 2019 from The Standard awards.
Lisa donated 100,000 baht, around $3,200 USD to Thai actor Bin Bunluerit to help his fund for excavating those who were caught in the great flooding in Thailand. This occurred across 32 provinces following the monsoon in September 2019.
In December 2019 Jisoo started working with Dior and become a local ambassador for Dior Beauty.
In February 2020, Samsung launched the Galaxy S20, with its special edition “Jennie red” which Jennie promoted to her audience.
Rosé became a new brand ambassador for Yves Saint Laurent in February 2020.
In March 2020, Blackpink won the Most Listened to K-pop Artist (female) award from the Spotify Awards. They, alongside BTS, were the most streamed K-pop artists on Spotify.
For Lisa’s birthday in 2020, she launched a self-made photo book through YG Entertainment called “0327.” The book showcased photos she had taken using a film camera.
With over 24 million followers on Instagram, Rosé became the third most followed K-pop star in June 2020.
On June 26, 2020, Blackpink broke the record for the biggest premiere on YouTube. They had a total of 1.65 million fans who watched the unveiling of their new music video “How You Like That.”
Blackpink is a fun-loving and creative K-pop group that will continue to inspire for many years to come.
Their diverse fashion sense and talent have stunned the world and they have received global recognition for their work.
So why not take a listen to their YouTube and get to know these fun-loving K-pop stars.
