CNN
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Global pop sensation Blackpink has been chosen as Time magazine‘s 2022 Entertainer of the Year, making the four-woman band the second K-pop artists to earn the title, following BTS in 2020.
Selected by YG Entertainment, a major South Korean record label that screens artists for star quality and trains them intensively, the quartet – Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa and Rosé – quickly found international fame after their debut in 2016.
Their first LP, “The Album”, sold over a million copies in less than a month after its release in 2020.
In a Time feature to mark the Entertainer of the Year award, the group looked back at their journey, from playing at Coachella in 2019 to performing “Pink Venom” at the VMAs earlier this year.
“We did a lot of work to look like superwomen,” rapper Jennie told Time. “Ultimately, we’re very normal girls.”
Speaking of their success – and the pressure that comes with it – Jennie said the band act from the heart.
“If we were thinking about this in a business sense, we wouldn’t be able to do this,” she said.
Part of the group’s global success stems from their cosmopolitan background. Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, singer Rosé called it “a plus” in the studio that they all come from “different cultures”.
Jennie was born in South Korea but grew up in New Zealand, while dancer Lisa is from Thailand. Singer Jisoo is the only one of the group who was born and raised in South Korea.
Blackpink are currently performing throughout Europe through the end of the year as part of their “Born Pink” world tour, which kicked off in October.
