Right now, BLACKPINK is dominating the charts in both the East and West with their latest comeback, "How You Like That," released on June 26 (Friday). Fans had to wait a year and two months for the comeback but the girl group didn't disappoint.
They ranked at the top of the iTunes charts in numerous counties and received an all-kill for the track. They also broke the record of the most unique listeners to the song on MelOn with over 100,000 unique listeners, beating out TWICE's "YES or YES."
Many must wonder: how did this girl group get formed? Learn their history here.
BLACKPINK is a four member girl group under YG Entertainment that debuted in August 8th, 2016, with "BOOMBAYAH" and "WHISTLE." From there, they rose to arguably be one of the biggest girl groups in Korea. Additionally, they are considered the K-Pop girl group to be leading the Hallyu Wave in America, alongisde BTS and NCT.
The oldest member, Jisoo, was born in 1995 in Sanbon-dong, Gunpo, South Korea. Even during her school days, she was already known for her beauty and was popular in her school. Her family would move to Seoul and yet Jisoo would still maintain her popularity for her beauty when transferring to a new school.
Jisoo has stated that she comes from a family of music lovers and was encouraged at a young age to sing and dance. The next obvious step was to audition for a company to pursue music, which her family supported. She auditioned for YG Entertainment in 2011 and started training that year.
During a concert, she went to a concert with other YG Entertainment trainees and was scouted to join SM Entertainment. She could have chosen to leave YG Entertainment, but she stuck with her company.
The company introduced Jisoo in 2012, but did not introduce her by name. They released a teaser of her and dubbed as "Mystery Girl No.2," and did not give any information on her. Before she made her idol debut, she debuted as an actress when she made a guest appearance on the drama "The Producers" alongside 2NE1's Dara. She starred in Epik High's music video for "Spoiler + Happy Ending" and HI SUHYUN's "I'm Different." She even landed commercial gigs for LG, Nikon, and Samsonite.
Jisoo debuted in 2016 after five years of training and is the group's lead vocalist and visual.
Jennie was born in 1996 in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul, South Korea. She was born to a wealthy family. Her father is a hospital director and her mother is rumored to be a CJ ENM director and shareholder, though that has yet to be confirmed. She spent her formative years in Auckland, New Zealand as an international student. There, she learned English.
When she was around 14-15, her mother wanted her to study in Florida. She even went to Florida with her mother and checked out where she would study and live. It hit her then that she didn't want to live in Florida alone without knowing what to do. She then, out of the blue, realized what she wanted to do music and learn how to dance. She told her mother she wanted to go to Korea to trainee and her mother supported her decision.
She moved back to Seoul and signed as a trainee in YG Entertainment in 2010. As a trainee, she acted in G-Dragon's "That XX" music video and featured on G-Dragon's "BLACK," Lee Hi's "I'm Special," and Seungri's "GG BE." She trained for six years and earned the nickname "The Princess of YG."
She debuted in 2016 as the lead rapper and vocalist of BLACKPINK.
Rosé was born in 1997 in Auckland, New Zealand, but grew up in Melbourne, Australia. From a young age, she was always into singing and loved music. She has said that she wasn't always a good singer and lacked confidence in her voice, but continued practicing anyway since it's what she loved to do. She started gaining confidence after joining her church's choir.
In 2012, her father had discovered that YG Entertainment was holding auditions in Australia. He asked his daughter if she wanted to audition, since he knew his daughter loved to sing. At first, Rosé was not sure about it, especially since her mother was against it. She also thought that she wasn't sure if she was qualified to do it but ended up saying yes. The parents agreed to let her audition and flew their daughter to Sydney to audition. The Sydney auditions saw over 700 applicants, and Rosé not only passed but ranked first against everyone else.
She started training in 2012 when she was sixteen years old. Her parents helped her settle in Korea to start her trainee life, but ultimately had to leave to go back to Australia since that's where their jobs were. She goes on to say that that was when the girls of BLACKPINK became her extended family members and stuck by her.
Prior to her debut, she featured on G-Dragon's "Without You." She made her debut in 2016 as the main vocalist and lead dancer of BLACKPINK.
Lisa was born in 1997 in Bangkok, Thailand, and is the only member who is not ethnically Korean. Her birth name is Pranpriya Manoban, but had it changed to Lalisa Manoban after a fortune teller told her she would have more luck if she changed her name to Lalisa. Early in her life, she has been a fan of K-Pop and went on to have dance lessons.
She competed in numerous dance competitions and was part of the dance troupe "We Zaa Cool," alongside future GOT7 member Bambam. The two are childhood friends and grew up together, and both coincidentally made their debut in a K-Pop group. The dance troupe would go on to join numeros contests and win awards.
She auditioned for YG Entertainment in 2010 when the company held their first-ever Thailand auditions, hoping to tap on some unknown talents. Lisa auditioned against 4,000 people and was the only person to pass in the Thailand auditions.
She moved to Korea that same year and though she was a gifted dancer, she mentioned having a hard time with the language. She had to learn from scratch and thanked her fellow trainees for helping her pick up the language. She trained for 5 years and was teased in numerous groups by YG Entertainment groups that sadly never made it to fruition. She also featured on Taeyang's "Ringa Linga" music video. She appeared with members of iKON and WINNER.
She debuted in 2016 as BLACKPINK's main dancer, lead rapper, sub-vocalist, and maknae. She is also the first non-Korean artist to debut under YG Entertainment.
That's how each girl was discovered and how they debuted under the company! They surely went through their ups and downs, but now they're conquering the stage as one of Korea's top girl groups.
