BLACKPINK reveals digital single before Japanese showcase

Members of K-pop girl band BLACKPINK, from left, Rose, Lisa, Jennie and Jisoo, talk during the round interview with press at YG Showroom in Mapo, Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of YG Entertainment

By Kim Jae-heun

K-pop girl group BLACKPINK returned with the new digital single "As If It's Your Last," Thursday, mixing the genres of house, reggae and moombahton music.

YG Entertainment's BLACKPINK has been pursuing hip-hop and dance music _ genres that are popular among YG musicians _ in its previous singles produced by renowned YG producer Teddy.

The girl group said they wanted to celebrate the summer and claimed "As If It's Your Last" is perfectly suited to the season as it would help listeners cool down from the hot weather with its bright and cheerful tune.

"The music we pursue in our new single may not be familiar to the public, but we are not strangers to it," Jennie said during a press conference at YG's cultural space in Mapo-gu, western Seoul.

"We tried out various genres when we were trainees. We hope people like our new song as we worked very hard."

Jisoo added, "Girl groups shine during the summer season and we came back with songs tailor-made for the summer. I hope our fans can enjoy our new style of music."

Three music producers _ Teddy, Future Bounce and Lydia Paek _ wrote BLACKPINK's new single, which the girl group describes as the song with the fastest tempo they've made yet.

BLACKPINK / Courtesy of YG Entertainment

The song is about a girl expressing her love directly towards her loving one as if it is her last chance.

It took eight months for BLACKPINK to release another song since they last released "Stay" and "Play With Fire" on their second mini-album "Square Two."

The girl group's digital single topped the iTunes chart in 14 countries as well as major online charts here. BLACKPINK also became the first rookie group, debuted less than a year earlier, to have three music videos with over 100 million hits on YouTube.

"This time, we aim to show a new genre and get recognized for it. We will appear on many TV shows to promote ourselves as we are still not widely known. We're excited for the upcoming activity," Jisoo said.

BLACKPINK will debut in Japan next month, introducing Japanese versions of former hit songs from their first and second mini-albums.

It is their first overseas activity and the band members promised they would have lively stage performances and that they would not disappoint Japanese fans. BLACKPINK asked fans here to support their performances in Japan too.

Jennie said she hopes BLACKPINK would perform in Thailand, too, as her bandmate Lisa is Thai.

"After I debuted with BLACKPINK, I went home during the break. I was surprised to meet so many Thai fans there even though we've never performed in Thailand. I hope we can go to Thailand soon," Lisa said.

As of Friday, BLACKPINK's new digital single topped iTunes charts in 18 countries including Argentina, Brunei, Taiwan and Finland _ breaking their own record to become a K-pop band that topped the most music charts abroad. They have also swept the five major local online music charts of Olleh, Bugs Music, Genie, Naver Music and Soribada.

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