'First, first, first': Blackpink marks 10 years as K-pop trailblazers

When Blackpink debuted on Aug. 8, 2016, with "Boombayah" — a track that wove the word "oppa" into its lyrics like a refrain — few could have predicted the decade that would follow. The group's trajectory over the past 10 years is inseparable from the broader rise of K-pop itself, yet it amounts to far more than the story of a successful girl group. Blackpink became a driving force that reshaped the paradigm of the global pop music industry and redefined its standards.

Every path Blackpink walked was one no one had walked before. Since their debut, the records they have set on the world's most prestigious charts have upended every assumption about what a girl group could achieve.

Their second studio album, "Born Pink," topped both the US Billboard 200 and the UK Official Albums Chart simultaneously — a feat no Asian female artist had ever accomplished, and one that no girl group anywhere in the world had managed since Destiny's Child in 2001, a gap of 21 years.

Their dominance extended across singles and albums alike. Eleven group releases entered the US Billboard Hot 100. Their first studio album, "The Album," became the first K-pop girl group record to sell more than a million copies, while "Born Pink" went on to sell more than three million. Their third mini-album, "Deadline," surpassed 1.77 million copies in its first week. On digital platforms, they became the first music act in the world to surpass 100 million YouTube subscribers, and their cumulative Spotify streaming count has exceeded 17.6 billion plays.

The group's pull, already formidable in arenas, grew to fill stadiums. The "Born Pink" tour drew about 1.8 million fans, and the subsequent "Deadline" world tour — their first as a complete group in years — sold out SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and made Blackpink the first K-pop girl group to perform at Wembley Stadium in London.

A particular milestone came in 2023, when they became the first Asian act to headline the main stage at Coachella in the United States and BST Hyde Park in the United Kingdom. The moment signaled K-pop's arrival not merely as a subculture in the West but as the centerpiece of the world's biggest music festivals.

Major international media have consistently recognized the scale of Blackpink's impact. Time magazine named them Entertainer of the Year — the first girl group in the world to receive the honor — calling them "the trend icons of our era and undeniably the world's greatest female band." Rolling Stone put them on its cover, the first Asian female group to appear there, describing them as "pop's new luminaries, possessed of a defiant spirit and unrivaled energy." Forbes called them "record-breakers who demolished the global ceiling for K-pop girl groups and changed the threshold for Billboard's main charts."

To mark their 10th anniversary on Saturday, Blackpink held a meet-and-greet event with 40 fans at the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, and streamed the gathering live for fans who could not attend in person.

Jisoo told the crowd, "Today is the day Blackpink turns 10. It's an important day for us. We're grateful." Rosé reflected on the passage of time, saying, "They say time flies when you're having fun, and 10 years really did go by fast — it doesn't feel like 10 years at all."

Rosé had prepared a surprise for her bandmates, presenting each of them with a cake and a bouquet of flowers. Jennie laughed and called her "our team's romantic." Lisa rounded out the celebration with a candid admission: "I was so nervous today — Saturday — that I couldn't eat. Even while getting my hair and makeup done, I was listening to Blackpink songs."