Sarah Shelton – Features Editor
BLACKPINK is one of the biggest K-pop groups in the world and one of their members is here
with a new solo project.
The group released their album, “THE ALBUM,” back in October 2020. For “THE ALBUM,” they had a virtual show back in January which many fans attended.
One of the group members, Rosé, unveiled her debut solo song “Gone” there. Rosé became the second member of the four to release a solo song, the first being Jennie with her song ‘Solo,’ released back in 2018. Rosé, however, released two solo songs.
Gone is a slower song, which the girls do not do often. It is a sad song about an ex-lover with
lyrics such as “all my love is gone and the hate is gon’ be standing all alone and I’m searching for something, but I can’t feel nothing.”
On March 12, 2021, Rosé released her second single, ‘On The Ground’, which is very different
from the type of music we hear from her. “On The Ground” has an EDM beat with a country-sounding guitar and, surprisingly, the two go well together. It has a very different style compared to the work she does with the group.
Fans have been waiting for this moment since YG Entertainment, their record label, announced that each member will have a solo. Fans have been asking the K-POP group through Twitter when Rosé’s song would come out since Jennie’s ‘Solo’ came out in 2018. It was also speculated for a long time Lisa would be next.
There was a big gap of time between Jennie’s project and Rosé’s project, but this is not the case for Lisa, as her songs just recently came out Friday, Sept. 10—within the same year as Rosé’s.
Lalisa Manoban, known as Lisa, is the main dancer and the rapper of the group. Lisa recently came out with her new solo project, a mini-album titled “LALISA,” featuring two songs.
The title track is called “LALISA” and I really enjoyed listening to it; It is very catchy, fun and features both Korean and English lyrics; unlike Rosé’s, whose songs are both fully in English.
The music video for “LALISA” displayed her individual style and showed us a different side to her we never knew we needed. At first, I was thinking “this looks like a typical BLACKPINK
video,” but then as I got further into the video, it’s very different from those videos—but in an amazing way.
Lisa definitely looked powerful. The video came with amazing bold visuals which made it hard to look away. A lot of fans on Twitter also noticed she was able to add some cultural mix to her video set. She is the only non-Korean girl in BLACKPINK (she is from Thailand), so I
really appreciated seeing the Southeast Asian representation. I am very happy for her.
“MONEY,” her second song, is more what I expected from a Lisa solo rather than “LALISA.” I personally feel like a lot of the group’s songs sound too “pop” for Lisa’s style, except for their song “Pretty Savage.”
“MONEY” is more her style and I am happy we have the opportunity to see what she is capable of as a solo artist. “LALISA” sounded more “pop” than I expected, however, I did get very excited when she started rapping in it because, in my opinion, she is a better rapper than a singer.
I always wondered what her solo songs would sound like, especially when she is singing—and honestly, I am impressed. It seems many other people are also in love with these songs.
According to @BLACKPINKGLOBAL on twitter, Lisa is the first K-pop female soloist to hold the top two spots on the iTunes Worldwide chart and according to @PopCrave, “LALISA” became the fastest debut music video in YouTube history to hit 10 million views, doing so in 90 minutes.
“LALISA” also became the fastest music video by a soloist to reach a 100 million views on YouTube, breaking the record previously held by PSY’s “Gentlemen,” According to Pop Crave.
Considering BLACKPINK is such a popular group, I am not too surprised her song is breaking so many records, but I am genuinely excited people are starting to see the girl’s potential as solo artists.
Now the only member from BLACKPINK left to release a solo music project is Jisoo, but Jisoo did star in a K-pop drama movie, so it is fair to say all the members of the group have successfully created their own solo projects while remaining in one of the biggest girl groups in the world.
