Blackpink made history by becoming the first K-pop band to ever serve as the headlining act at a significant UK music festival. The K-pop girl group performed to a sold-out crowd of 65,000 fans at London’s BST Hyde Park, some of whom travelled halfway around the world to see them.
“We’ve been waiting for this since last year,” said Jeangil Pagunsan, a Filipino immigrant to the UK.
“No words can explain the joy we feel right now. This night was so insane.”
“We love everything about them,” said her friend Rick Mae Vaporoso. “Everything was so hype.”
“Their songs are great, their personality is great, they’re really energising,” agreed Adrian and Jess Chan, who’d set off from Nottingham at 06:00 to make sure they secured a prime spot in the audience. Mother and daughter Michelle and Yazmin Glackin had a trickier journey . Their morning plane from Northern Ireland was cancelled.
After an agonising wait, they finally grabbed the last two seats on the 15:30 flight, arriving at the concert with all of their luggage to make sure they didn’t miss the show.
“It’s been a long day, but it was all worth it. We’d do it all over again,” said Michelle. Michelle’s daughter is “absolutely besotted” by the quartet.
“But I’ve seen nothing, ‘cos she was on my shoulders the whole time,” she said.
Biggest K-pop Band
Blackpink aren’t just one of the biggest K-pop bands in the world – they’re one of the world’s biggest bands full stop. They formed in an intense, six-year-long bootcamp, and the group consists of Lisa (real name Lalisa Manobal), 26, from Thailand; Rosé (Roseanne Chaeyoung Park), also 26, who was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia; Jennie Kim, 27, who grew up in South Korea; and Jisoo Kim, 28, from Gunpo, about 20 miles south of Seoul.
Since the release of their debut single Whistle in 2016, they’ve become the most followed act on YouTube and the first K-pop girl band to sell a million albums. Their most recent record, Born Pink, entered the UK charts at number one, and the group have a combined 356 million Instagram followers.
