BLACKPINK is second and currently the only girl group under YG Entertainment. The group marked its debut in August 2016 with the single Square One, consisting of songs – Whistle and Boombayah. Both the songs went ahead to become BLACKPINK’s first number-one entries on South Korea’s Gaon Digital Chart and the US Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart, respectively.
Gradually BLACKPINK has grown to become one of the biggest girl groups in the world. All its releases since the debut have gone on to become a bigger hit compared to the group’s last release. Renowned YG Entertainment producer, Teddy, is in charge of producing songs for BLACKPINK. Over the years, the members have also participated in writing, composing, and producing songs for the group.
BLACKPINK comprises 4 members – Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa. All four of them have a unique story of how they ended up in YG Entertainment and eventually became BLACKPINK. Read below to know how each BLACKPINK member joined YG Entertainment.
1. Jisoo
According to Koreaboo, in an interview, BLACPINK’s oldest member, Jisoo, mentioned that singing is something that her entire family enjoys. It was because of encouragement from her family members that Jisoo decided to pursue singing as a career and auditioned for YG Entertainment. Jisoo joined the agency in July 2011.
Jisoo recalled that Yang Hyun Suk asked her whether she was dating anybody after noticing the ring on her finger during her YG Entertainment audition because the company has a stringent no-dating policy.
In an episode of Radio Star, Jisoo revealed that she was discovered by a casting agent from SM Entertainment while attending a YG Entertainment concert while she was a trainee. Evidently, she had rejected the offer, mainly because by then, she was completely committed to YG Entertainment.
2. Jennie
BLACKPINK’s main rapper seems to have traveled a lot even prior to joining the entertainment industry. When Jennie was 10 years old, she relocated to New Zealand from Seoul and did her schooling there for a while. Jennie was also interviewed by MBC while she was a student at ACG Parnell College in Auckland, New Zealand, for a documentary program. In the interview, she revealed that she listened to a lot of K-Pop and had aspirations of becoming a performer.
Though she initially planned to move to the US to pursue higher education, Jennie told her mother that she would like to give her musician dream a shot. Jennie then moved to South Korea and then auditioned for YG Entertainment – the agency she had wanted to join ever since her New Zealand days. She finally signed up with the agency in August 2010, making her the member with the longest trainee period within BLACKPINK.
3. Rosé
Rosé definitely has one of the funniest stories in the industry about how she landed her music career. When asked about her audition for YG Entertainment in the Zach Sang Show, Rosé revealed that her father had signed her up for an open audition conducted by the agency in Australia. She jokingly said, “I think he was sick of me like screaming at the top of my lungs on my piano every night, like 12 AM. He was sick of me, so he just wanted to, like get rid of me and send me to South Korea.” She further added that once she grew up, her family told her, “Rosie to be honest it was really hard for us to like, you know, go to bed when you were singing at the top of your lungs.”
She joined the agency as a trainee in May 2012 after acing the audition as the number one candidate. Rosé subsequently said during a live broadcast that there was a 700:1 ratio of strong competition during the audition.
4. Lisa
Lisa developed an interest in dancing at a very young age. Born and raised in Thailand, Lisa was a member of a dance crew along with fellow Thai K-pop idol, BamBam. She revealed during an interview that she enjoyed singing as well and wanted to perform, so she went to the 2010 YG Entertainment Auditions in Thailand to try out. Lisa was the only one to pass the audition, making her the first foreign and Thai trainee to join YG Entertainment in April 2011.
When Lisa first moved to South Korea in, she said she didn’t know a single word of the language. Being frustrated by the language barrier, Lisa worked hard to learn Korean by attending courses every day. She thanked the group members for their assistance in helping her get used to the new tongue.