BLACKPINK is not slowing down from making history!
After becoming one of the leading forces in the Korean Wave, the “biggest girl group in the world” is soaring to new heights by bagging another accolade in their kitty. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has announced that BLACKPINK’s debut studio album, “The Album,” released on Friday, October 2, 2020, has received an official BRIT Gold certification in the United Kingdom.
According to the BPI’s certification criteria, albums achieve gold status upon selling 100,000 units, while singles need to sell 400,000 units to be certified gold. With this milestone, all the requirements were fulfilled, which led the British recorded music industry’s Trade Association to design BLACKPINK as the first female K-pop artist to receive a gold certification for an album in the UK.
In addition to this, “The Album,” which explores the themes of love and the complexities of growing up debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart, and it became the highest-charting album by a Korean girl group and Korean female artist on the chart. While also earning the best-selling cassette album of the week, shifting 5,700 copies on the format.
Upon its worldwide release, “The Album,” was supported by three singles in total, two of which were pre-released and became top-forty hits on the US Billboard Hot 100. It also debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 with 110,000 units moved and became the highest-charting female Korean album and the highest-charting album by an all-female group.
The winning streak doesn’t end here because, not to much surprise, the album has also been certified million by the Korea Music Content Association (KMCA). On the other hand, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) confirmed in 2020 that the album was the fifth best-selling album worldwide in pure sales.
For the project supported by YG Entertainment and Interscope, all four main artists which include Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa worked with a variety of producers, including Teddy, Tommy Brown, R. Tee, Steven Franks, and 24. The final tracklist, includes a total of 8 songs with two collaborations, “Ice Cream,” with Selena Gomez and “Bet You Wanna,” featuring Cardi B.
Most recently, the official music video for “Ice Cream” with Selena Gomez crossed 906 million views on YouTube. Despite being the second pre-release single, the song was able to garner 79.08 million views in its first 24 hours. It was also nominated for Best Collaboration at the MTV Europe Music Awards, Music Video of 2020 at the People’s Choice Awards, and Best K-Pop at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards.