BLACKPINK became the first K-pop group to gain 2 billion views on YouTube on a music video with the 2018 single “DDU-DU DDU-DU”.
The quartet’s label, YG Entertainment, today (January 4) officially announced on Twitter that the music video “DDU-DU DDU-DU” has reached the 2 billion mark on YouTube, making BLACKPINK the first k-pop group in history to achieve this feat on a single music video.
BLACKPINK is now inferior to Psy soloist’s 2012 viral hit “Gangnam Style”, whose music video had 4.6 billion views at the time of publication. In second place after the music video “DDU-DU DDU-DU” is another BLACKPINK video — the official music video “Kill This Love” takes second place with 1.7 billion views and continues to grow.
#BLACKPINK '뚜두뚜두 (DDU-DU DDU-DU)' M/V HITS 2 BILLION VIEWS @Youtube
BLINKs worldwide, thank you so much!'뚜두뚜두 (DDU-DU DDU-DU)' M/V
🎥 https://t.co/1kRIxsdptJ #블랙핑크 #DDU_DU_DDU_DU #뚜두뚜두 #MV #2BILLION #YOUTUBE #YG pic.twitter.com/QTADV4pK9B— YG FAMILY (@ygent_official) January 4, 2023
Psy’s video processing “Gangnam Style” became the first on YouTube to ever gain a billion views in the history of the platform, marking the creation of a Club of billions of YouTube views. Besides “Kill This Love” and “DDU-DU-DDU-DU”, the video clip for “How You Like That” is also part of BVC, which currently has 1.1 billion views. K-pop bandmates BTS are also part of the club with several videos, including music videos for “DNA”, “Boy With Luv”, “Dynamite” and others.
“DDU-DU DDU-DU” was released in June 2018 as the lead single of the debut mini-album “Square Up”. The song was accompanied by three other B-sides — “Forever Young”, “Really” and “See U Later” — and all four tracks were co-written and produced by YG Entertainment producer Teddy.
In September 2022, BLACKPINK released their second studio album “Born Pink”, which was their first collaboration in two years with the title track “Shut Down”. The recording was preceded by the pre-release of the single “Pink Venom” in August, and also includes “Ready For Love”, which premiered at a virtual concert organized in collaboration with PUBG Mobile.
In NME’s three-star review of “Born Pink”, Tanu I. Raj wrote: “Now that BLACKPINK seems to have whetted their appetite for experimentation, let’s hope they get to the end on the next album — completely flip the script, driven by the confidence that no matter what they do, they will come out victorious.”
A few days ago, YG Entertainment confirmed the release of Jisoo’s solo debut in 2023. “Jisu from BLACKPINK is currently hard at work recording his solo album. Following a busy world tour schedule since last year, she finished a photo shoot for the album cover and worked on making music when she had time to keep the promise she made to fans,” the company said in a statement. “She will soon greet [fans] with good news.”
This will make Jisoo the fourth and last member of the group to become a solo artist. Jennie was the first BLACKPINK member to do this, with the single “Solo” in 2018. She was followed by members Rose and Lisa in 2021 with the releases “Lalisa” and “R” respectively.
