Blackpink’s new single scores 13th place on the Billboard

K-pop continues to score strong on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. K-pop group Blackpink’s new song “Ice Cream (with Selena Gomez)” ranked 13th, the highest score ever for a Korean female performer. BTS has topped the list for the second week.

“Ice Cream” gained attention as the K-pop girl group collaborated with U.S. pop star Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande wrote the song. On the first week it was released, the song hit second place on the chart, streamed 18.3 million times and getting 23,000 downloads. It also scored 32nd place on the radio air chart, while the music video was viewed more than 200,000 times within 10 days since its release on Aug 28. Blackpink continues to gain steady popularity in the U.S. in addition to last year’s performance for their songs “Kill This Love” (41st place) and “How You Like That” (33rd place)’, quickly following BTS’ steps for popularity in the U.S. market.

A documentary on Blackpink will be released soon. According to YG Entertainment, “Blackpink:Light Up the Sky” will be aired on Netflix on Oct 14. The agency explained that it will be the fourth Netflix original documentary on female singers after Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Taylor Swift and the first about Korean singers.

Streaming and download for BTS’ Dynamite declined by 49% and 31%, respectively, this week, but rose to 18th place, or 38%, on the radio chart, keeping its lead.


imi@donga.com