‘It’s lovely poison’: Blackpink’s Jennie on Pink Venom, group’s new single

Back with a bite, K-pop superstars Blackpink have released their first song in over a year, Pink Venom.

Pink Venom is the first song off their forthcoming album Born Pink, which they will launch on Sept 16.

Born Pink is their second LP, following Oct 2020’s The Album, and follows a period in which Blackpink members Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo and Rose focused on solo projects.

“It was our sixth anniversary recently, time flies,” Jisoo said at a news conference in Seoul, South Korea, where the group talked about the new single and the upcoming Born Pink.

“[Our fans] Blinks have waited for our music and waited for us, so I hope we can enjoy and have fun together for a long time.”

A blend of hip hop, electronic music, and traditional Korean instrumentals, Pink Venom is an attempt to “raise expectations for the upcoming album’s release and all the good songs there”, Lisa said.

Blackpink introduced Pink Venom at a news conference in Seoul.

“I can’t give away everything, but we want to play up our strengths and show us as we are while trying new things [on the album]. Listen to Pink Venom and you’ll get a clearer picture of our second album.

“[Our songwriting team] played the song in the studio for us the first time, and it sounded really new to us,” Rose said.

“There were sounds we had never attempted before so we really rapidly decided to record it and wanted to perform it for everyone soon.”

Pink Venom is Blackpink’s attempt at creating what Jisoo called a “conceptual song”, and the quartet spent a long time considering the music video, dance and all related visual elements, from promotional images to performances.

The title, Pink Venom, is meant to be contradictory, recalling the band’s own name being made up of seemingly contrasting ideas.

“Our name is Blackpink and contradiction is our charm so we wanted to show that,” Jennie said.

“It’s lovely venom, lovely poison. I think they’re words that most express our identity, and [the song] contains a lot of conceptual elements of the Born Pink project…I think it’s Blackpink itself.”

The song and album arrive ahead of an upcoming Born Pink world tour that will run until June 2023 and will be the biggest ever tour by a K-pop girl group.