BLACKPINK, YG ENTERTAINMENT’S CHART-BUSTING K-POP GIRL GROUP, SIGNS TO INTERSCOPE RECORDS
Photo credit: YG Entertainment
SANTA MONICA, October 22, 2018 — YG Entertainment and Interscope Records are thrilled to announce a global partnership for BLACKPINK, one of the world’s biggest all-female K-pop groups. The South Korean quartet is currently the highest-charting female K-pop act in Billboard Hot 100 history. Interscope and Universal Music Group will represent the group’s music in all of the world excluding Asia.
Mr. Yang Hyun Suk, Founder & Chairman of YG Entertainment, highly emphasized the significance of this deal, stating “We will work closely with the biggest music company, Universal Music Group, globally for the successful global debut and promotion of BLACKPINK. In addition, we will do our best to help other YG artists to break through the North American and European territories as well.”
“We are more than thrilled to begin a partnership with UMG and Interscope,” said Teddy Park, YG’s main producer who works closely with BLACKPINK on both their creative and music. “Entertainment today is more global than ever. Music and real talent transcends culture, language, and really has no boundaries. Through this partnership we feel we can truly showcase BLACKPINK’s potential on a grander scale and we look forward to what’s to come.”
Sir Lucian Grainge, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, said: “Chairman Yang has built YG Entertainment into a global music powerhouse with an impressive track record of breaking artists. I’m thrilled to expand our relationship with YG through the addition of Blackpink to the Interscope family. We look forward to building upon BLACKPINK’s remarkable early success by putting the global resources and expertise of UMG behind them and growing their audience around the world.”
“BLACKPINK are global superstars in the making,” commented John Janick, Chairman and CEO of Interscope Geffen A&M. “The music and visuals are so immediately striking and so different from anything else happening in pop music. We are beyond excited to partner with YG in pursuit of their vision for BLACKPINK world domination.”
Discovered by K-Pop superstar artist/producer Teddy Park and YG Entertainment (the multi-faceted South Korean entertainment company responsible for the breakout successes of Big Bang, PSY, and 2NE1, among many others ), BLACKPINK’s lineup includes Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa, and Rosé. The group made its debut in August 2016 with a massively popular pair of singles: “Boombayah” and “Whistle,” which debuted at #1 and #2 on Billboard’s World Digital Songs chart. That November, BLACKPINK delivered their singles “Stay” and “Playing with Fire,” their second single to reach #1 on World Digital Songs. By the end of the year, BLACKPINK had landed at #2 on Billboard’s 10 Best New K-Pop Groups in 2016 list.
As the first female K-pop group ever to have four #1 singles on the World Digital Songs chart, BLACKPINK’s hits also include “As If It’s Your Last”—a June 2017 release that debuted at #1.
On June 15 of this year, BLACKPINK released their debut EP Square Upand premiered its lead single “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du.” The song shot to #55 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it history’s highest-charting debut by an all-female K-pop act.
Also arriving on June 15, the video for “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” surpassed 10 million views in just 6 hours and earned 36.2 million views in one day. In August, “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” appeared at #3 on YouTube’s Global Top 10 Songs of the Summer list, surpassing Drake’s “In My Feelings” and Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect.” The video currently has over 400,000,000 views on YouTube.
In addition, Square Updebuted at #40 on the Billboard 200, cementing it as the highest-charting release to date by an all-female K-pop group. Square Up also hit #1 on the Billboard World Albums chart.
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