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K-pop group Blackpink are making waves in the United States.

Move over BTS, Blackpink are the new K-pop act making history in the US

  • Girl group Blackpink made chart history by landing their new EP Kill This Love at No. 24 on the US Billboard 200 chart with 19,000 album units
  • They also became first female K-pop performers to play at Coachella
USA TODAY

BTS aren’t the only K-pop group breaking records in the United States.

While the boy band phenomenon were making headlines performing on Saturday Night Live last weekend, Blackpink – a four-member, all-female group also hailing from South Korea – were celebrating their career-best week of US successes.

If American listeners aren’t acquainted with Blackpink by now, that’s likely to change. With the group conquering US charts faster than any female K-pop act in history, Blackpink have the potential to become one of the country’s biggest groups, full stop.

Blackpink’s big week included a performance at Coachella last Friday, simulcast on a billboard in Times Square. The first female K-pop performers to play the festival, the group earned coveted second-line billing on the poster that splashed their name higher than Kacey Musgraves, Ella Mai and several other of the day’s names who were likely more familiar to US listeners.

On Monday, they made Billboard chart history by landing their new EP Kill This Love at No. 24 on the Billboard 200 chart with 19,000 album units; their single of the same name came in at No. 41 on the Hot 100, the highest-charting debut ever by a K-pop girl group.

Blackpink’s US momentum, in which they burst onto the scene in seemingly the blink of an eye – though the group have been around since 2016 – is a fortuitous combination of industry support, changing listening habits and the group’s own special sauce.

Blackpink’s four members – 22-year-old Lisa, 22-year-old Rose, 23-year-old Jennie and 24-year-old Jisoo – are amazing performers, executing intense choreography while rap-singing largely Korean lyrics for songs that sound made for US radio regardless of the language barrier.

The women’s talents are backed by the Interscope label, which signed Blackpink in 2018, partnering with the South Korean music company YG Entertainment to manage the group and produce and release their music.

Blackpink have netted a string of successes since signing with Interscope, from their recent chart momentum to their coming arena tour of the US, which started on Wednesday in Los Angeles.

Thanks to their established social media fan army, listeners around the world are paying attention. In addition to their streaming-driven charts achievements, the group’s Kill This Love video, released on April 4, broke a YouTube record previously set by Ariana Grande’s thank u next by racking up 56.7 million views in its first 24 hours.

Blackpink

Like BTS’ own influential fan base, who flood social media with updates and praise for the boy band’s every move, Blackpink have powerful backing from their own international cadre of fans, who call themselves “Blinks”.

Blackpink are also similar to BTS in that they’ve landed huge musical achievements in the US while not yet managing to land massive breakthrough singles that in turn would earn them mainstream airplay.

K-pop stars BTS to perform new song at Billboard Music Awards

But if the past few years’ proliferation of Spanish-language singles on pop radio and the Billboard Hot 100 have shown anything, it’s that US listeners are more open than ever to hits that take cues from different languages and cultures.

Whether Blackpink will land a Despacito-level hit before BTS remains to be seen, but if the group’s four women and their fans have anything to say about it, the title of the biggest girl group in America may yet be theirs for the taking.

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