South Korean entertainment agency YG Entertainment will debut its new girl group BLACKPINK by the end of the month. The group, which has already caused a hype among K-pop fans, will be introduced with four members.
YG Entertainment has made this official announcement last June 29, exactly seven years after the launch of 2NE1. Putting contrasting colors of pink and black together, the group's name "BLACKPINK" means "pretty things are not everything" and "all is not as it seems," the agency revealed.
According to The Korea Times, this recent announcement immediately trended and became a top search on South Korea's top portal website, Naver. Moreover, BLACKPINK also became the most read story online.
Around 50 trainees from the agency have auditioned to be part of the new girl group. Prior to this announcement, it was rumored that BLACKPINK will have five members. However, it turned out that the additional one was only an extra.
In the said report by The Korea Times, YG Entertainment revealed the group's producer Yang Hyun-suk initially planned to debut 9 members, but he narrowed it down to the final four to concentrate further on developing their skills.
Since June 1, YG Entertainment has introduced the four members one by one through their official blog. The four members of BLACKPINK are Jennie, who has appeared in rapper G-Dragon's music videos; Lisa, the Thai national who is also fluent in Korean, English and Japanese; Jisoo, another talented singer who has appeared in a number of music videos by YG Entertainment artists; and Rose, who was born in Australia and moved to Korea in 2012 to pursue her music career after passing a local audition by YG Entertainment.
Soompi has learned that the new girl group will release their first single by the end of the month and will separately release new songs until December.
An unnamed source in the said article has revealed BLACKPINK's new album is almost complete with a total of eight songs of "amazing quality" already finalized. YG Entertainment's Teddy, who has written and produced songs for the agency's most celebrated groups like BigBang and 2NE1, is also producing the new group's first album.
"Teddy, who is in charge of producing BLACKPINK's debut album, has been working on songs... for the past two years. Currently, there are eight songs that have been finalized. Every song in BLACKPINK's debut album will have a music video, so we are currently planning on filming at least eight music videos," the unnamed source said in the Soompi report.
In addition, the group has been busy preparing for their debut. BLACKPINK is reportedly currently working on their third music video alongside renowned choreographers around the world.
Check out BLACKPINK's dance practice video below.