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 artist to hold the title in 2020 after BTS.
Selected by YG Entertainment, a large South Korean record label that screens performances for star quality and trains them intensively, the quartet – Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa and Rose – found international stardom shortly after their 2016 debut.
Their debut LP, “The Album”, sold over one million copies in less than a month after its 2020 release.
In the Time feature marking the Entertainer of the Year award, the group revisited their journey from playing Coachella in 2019 to performing “Pink Venom” at the VMAs earlier this year.
Rapper Jenny told TIME, “We put in a lot of work to make us look like Superwoman.” “At the end of the day we’re just normal girls.”
Talking about their success – and the pressures that come with it – Jenny said that the band performs from the heart.
“If we approach this in a commercial way, we won’t be able to do this,” she said.
Part of the group’s global success comes from their cosmopolitan background. Singer Rose, who was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, called it a “plus” in the studio that they are all 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 born and raised in South Korea.
Blackpink are currently performing across Europe through the end of the year as part of their “Born Pink” world tour, which began in October.