BLACKPINK performs at Coachella festival as 1st-ever Korean headliner

연합뉴스 / 2023-04-17 09:55:49

▲ This photo, provided by YG Entertainment, shows BLACKPINK. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, April. 17 (Yonhap) -- Girl group BLACKPINK has heated up the stage with them being headliner at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the largest music festival in the U.S. that they visited again in four years.

BLACKPINK has appeared as the last performer of the day at an event in California on Saturday. (local time).

The four members have appeared in black and pink costumes, as the team name suggests, opening the stage with their second pre-released song "Pink Venom." They then sang hit songs such as "Kill This Love," "How You Like That," and "Pretty Savage."

BLACKPINK has given an impressive live performance to the intense band sound. Even though they put strength into choreography that was in harmony, they even showed the ease of smiling in the middle of the performance. They looked very encouraged to become the "main character" of a large music festival with 125,000 visitors a day.

They are the first K-pop girl group to appear at the music festival in 2019 and have drawn attention. At that time, the stage was set up outside the main stage. BLACKPINK, who returned to Coachella after four years, has proudly secured the main stage headliner position as a mega-hit K-pop girl group around the world.

Rosé said, "We were invited to perform at Coachella four years ago, and we stood as a headliner at the world's most beloved music festival," adding, "I think my dream has come true."

Jennie also said, "I'm happy that we can come back here after four years," adding, "It's even more so that we made it to the main stage from Sahara (substage)."

Local audiences who filled the venue enjoyed the performance by singing along as if they were familiar with Korean songs. The audience waved a pink light stick symbolizing BLACKPINK, and a large Taegeukgi was also noticeable on one side of the audience close to the stage.

BLACKPINK also showed off its unique confident girl crush charm as they were more energized by the enthusiasm of the audience. As the team's main vocalist, Rosé boasted a cool high note that penetrated the accompaniment, and Jisoo waved to the audience as she walked out of the thrust stage.

In addition to the team's hit songs, the four members showed off their each talent through their solo stages.

Jennie showed her sensuality through her unreleased solo song "You and Me," and Jisoo made a strong impression by singing her recently released "FLOWER" in a red costume. Lisa caught audiences’ eye with her pole dance performance ahead of the global hit song "MONEY," and Rosé sang her solo songs "Gone" and "On the Ground" with a hand microphone.

The atmosphere heated up to the top with a series of hits such as "BOOMBAYAH," "Playing With Fire," and "Lovesick Girls," which will be familiar to K-pop listeners even if they are not BLACKPINK fans. On the "Playing With Fire" stage, a huge pillar of fire rose to match the song.

They finished the Coachella headliner stage with "DDU-DU DDU-DU" and "Forever Young."

The performance was broadcast live around the world on Coachella's official YouTube channel. The YouTube chat window received favorable reviews from global fans, including "BLACKPINK is absolute legend" and "BLACKPINK killing it at Coachella as always."

BLACKPINK is on the largest world tour in the history of K-pop girl groups with a total of more than 1.5 million audiences. They will also appear as headliners for the first time as K-pop singers at Britain's leading music festival "British Summer Time Festival Hyde Park" in July.

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Yunhee Cho.)

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