“Born Pink”: Blackpink’s new album

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In an Instagram post right after their second L.A concert on November 20th, Jisoo said, “Its been three years…I was so touched by how much all your love and energy has remained! As we end the North America stretch of the tour…thank you once again for the unforgettable memories.”

From winning multiple awards to having many of their songs pass a billion views on Youtube, Blackpink has made K-pop history and has shown the world that they are still dominating the industry with their newly released Album, “Born Pink”.

Since their debut in 2016, Blackpink has become the biggest South Korean girl group in the world. Blackpink consists of four members, Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa. These four girls have made history by being the first K-pop group to perform at the popular music festival, Coachella. They are also one of the few groups to collaborate with so many popular American artists, such as Dua Lipa, Cardi B, Lady Gaga, and Selena Gomez. “I think Blackpink was what got a lot of K-pop fans into K-pop. Their popularity is insane and they definitely made K-pop more popular in America.” Kailin Xuan (‘26) explained. 

In 2018, they released a song called “DDU-DU-DDU-DU”, that now has 1.9 billion views on YouTube, which is the most viewed K-pop girl group music video on the platform. Their last album, The Album, was released in 2020, with over one million sales, (the first girl group to accomplish this), and was the best-selling album by a girl group in the chart’s history. But with their popularity at the peak, they had a sudden stop in releasing music. 

Fans were mad that Blackpink wasn’t releasing any new songs, and waited for two years before this new album was released. According to thousands of posts on Instagram, many fans think that the reason why there was such a long pause was because all of the members were busy with their own promotions. Jisoo was acting in the K-drama “Snowdrop”, Rosé was modeling for Tiffany & Co and serving as global ambassador for fashion company YSL, Jennie was modeling for Chanel, and Lisa released two solo songs, “Lalisa” and “Money.” 

Blackpink’s new album is called “Born Pink,” and it includes eight songs. “Pink Venom,” pre-released as a single, got 90.4 million views on YouTube within the first 24 hours and has hit 300 million streams on Spotify. This is the fastest song by a girl group to pass 300 million in the platform’s history. Jennie, a member of Blackpink, said in an interview for Elle magazine, “pink” and “venom” have contradicting images, so the title shows that Blackpink is both sweet and deadly. The second track “Shut Down” is a piece merging classical clips and modern hip hop to create a new era of Blackpink. The other six songs are just as good, and include “Tally”, “Happiest girl”, “Typa Girl” “Yeah Yeah Yeah” (co-written by Rosé and Jisoo.), “Hard to Love,” and “Ready for Love”. 

A Blackpink fan, Abigail Wei (‘26) said, “Although the album is short, I can’t choose my favorite in the album! Probably either “Yeah Yeah Yeah” or “Typa Girl,” I love both songs for different reasons.”  Kailin agreed,  “I really like this new album, although a lot of people have said that this album isn’t as good as their previous ones, I’ve been listening to it on repeat.” 

With this new album, Blackpink decided to do a world tour, with their previous one being three years ago in 2019. This world tour started in October of 2022, and will go into June of 2023. Blackpink will perform in multiple countries in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia. (I had a chance to attend the concert in Los Angeles, and can say that it was an experience to remember.) 

With Blackpink’s massive popularity, buying tickets can be difficult. In Los Angeles, front row seats and v.i.p tickets could cost as much as $1500, with the average floor seat ticket costing $600 per person. The cheapest tickets in L.A were $100-$200, but the price varies between each country and state. V.i.p ticket holders get to skip the long four hour lines, go inside the stadium for sound check, have a special lounge, and are guaranteed first row seats. There is also a special send off at the end of the concert, where these fans can interact with the members. 

Of course, most fans who come to the concert don’t get v.i.p tickets, and they faced long lines, sometimes waiting up to 4 hours. At the concert, many fans stood on their seats and crowded the aisles, and although security tried to stop this, it was getting out of control and they couldn’t do anything about it. “Although the concert was chaotic, it was a memorable night,” Abigail Wei (‘26) explained, “Blackpink performed their best, and thousands of fans throughout the whole stadium were going crazy,” Abigail laughed. 

With Blackpink being a group for six years already, and a new girl group debuting soon from the same company, fans predict they will disband in the next couple years. “This could have been the last concert Blackpink will ever have in the U.S.” Abigail explains, “I’m so glad I got to go.” In Blackpink’s documentary, Lisa reflected, “It doesn’t matter if we grow old and get replaced by a new younger generation. As long as there is still someone talking about us. Because they will still remember how we shone so bright.”