On October 14th, Netflix dropped their much-anticipated BLACKPINK documentary, "BLACKPINK: Light Up The Sky". In the documentary, the girls of BLACKPINK revealed that their hit debut song, "WHISTLE", was almost not released.
The scene starts with the members of BLACKPINK in the studio with Teddy Park, their main producer, reminiscing their debut song "WHISTLE". Jisoo is the first to start conversing, saying, "Oppa, do you remember how we hard to record that whistling sound 1,000 times?" The girls start laughing and Teddy, replying in English, says "That I'll never forget. I cannot forget that."
Rosé then revealed that "WHISTLE" almost was not released for their debut, saying, "And we almost did not come out with 'WHISTLE' for out debut song, but last minute, we were like, 'it has to be that one.'"
Teddy then revealed why people were so against them releasing "WHISTLE" saying that people thought it was too risky, "Cause it had this weird country vibe to it and it is just super minimal. It just sounded too empty for a lot of people." Despite how people were against, Teddy and BLACKPINK pushed forward with the song. "Most people were against it. But we just pushed through with it, we did not care," Teddy says.
Releasing "WHISTLE" and making it their debut song proved to be a good choice for the group. "WHISTLE" was their first song to hit number one on the Gaon Charts and was widely loved by the Korean public.
Jennie revealed in the documentary that the most surprising and the most exciting thing that happened in their debut era was when "WHISTLE" hit number one on the music charts. Rosé then revealed that they were in the practice room when they first heard the track debuted at number two on the charts and that she would keep on checking the charts while they practiced.
Jisoo agreed, saying that the girls would check every hour. Rosé continued her story, saying that they had found out they hit number one when someone entered the practice room, going "Oh my God!" The girls started jumping up and down in excitement over their number one hit.
Jisoo then revealed that her friends at the time would message her to tell her that they heard "WHISTLE" while they were out and about. This would make Jisoo feel happy and she would ask friends to send her a video of the song playing outside.
Who would have thought a hit song like "WHISTLE" was almost rejected? Listen to the song here!
"WHISTLE" was released on August 8, 2016, as part of a dual-title track with "BOOMBAYAH" for BLACKPINK's debut. The song was written by B.I., Teddy Park, and Bekuh Boom, with the latter two composing the song with Future Bounce. "WHISTLE" is characterized by its minimalist hip-hope product and guitar-driven pop composition. The song has an addictive whistling motif and its lyrics take about a love-all and the rhythm of a beating heart.
"BLACKPINK" was a commercial success, peaking at the top of the Gaon Digital Charts. It is the first-ever debut song by a K-pop group to achieve a "perfect all-kill" status on the South Korean music charts.
