It’s been a fairly wild yr wild for BLACKPINK‘s Jennie. Along with the woman group making historical past in April once they grew to become the primary Ok-pop band to headline the competition, she additionally turned heads along with her pivotal position as Dyanne within the HBO music drama The Idol, serving as one of many few shiny spots within the in any other case divisive, controversial present from The Weeknd (who now goes by his delivery title, Abel Tesfaye) and co-creator Sam Levinson.
In her first-ever podcast interview, Jennie sat down with Dua Lipa on the most recent episode of the “Levitating” singer’s At Your Service pod to debate these matters, in addition to the tradition shock she skilled when she moved from South Korea to New Zealand when she was 10 years-old. “I actually jumped in with out realizing what to anticipate,” she mentioned, noting that the one factor she knew learn how to say in English on the time was “Hello, I’m Jennie.”
Jennie mentioned that she’d at all times needed to discover performing and the possibility to hitch the solid of the HBO limited-series a few troubled pop star’s tried comeback after a breakdown positively appealed to her. “Once I do one thing I determine to actually go for it, I do know I must do it proper, and to begin with, I needed the brand new performing a part of my life to be genuine, somewhat than simply me making an attempt to seize any alternatives that got here to me,” she mentioned of the chance to play the backup-dancer-turned-rival to star Lily-Rose Depp’s Joceyln on The Idol.
As a result of it was her first-ever performing job, Jennie mentioned she needed to have endurance with the method, which meant she frolicked in Los Angeles final yr and had a gathering with the collection co-creator Levinson in individual throughout which he walked her by way of the position. “It felt actually genuine and actual, it moved me and it gave me the braveness to imagine that this was the correct factor to do,” she mentioned.
Whereas discussing the extreme trainee system within the Ok-pop world and the myriad types of dancing and singing the group’s members went by way of earlier than making their debut — she’s a self-described horrible krumper — Jennie additionally revealed that she hasn’t at all times been psyched to be the quartet’s designated MC because of her English-language fluency.
“I’ve by no means actually mentioned this wherever, however I’ve needed to…,” she mentioned of her surprising path to being the group’s rapper. “I’ve gotten into the entire concept of rapping due to the language that I used to be working with. Again after I was a trainee, I assumed, ‘that is what I’m speculated to do’ and I acquired so into it that by the point we debut in my head I’m considering, ‘I’m a rapper.’ In my head I’m gonna go on the market and rap my ass off.”
However after the band’s debut — the place Jennie had rap bits on six completely different songs — issues acquired a bit muddled in her head about her assigned position. “I form of acquired confused as a result of the extra I did singing and music I got here to understand that there’s an enormous aspect of me inside that I like to sing, simply play with my vocals,” she mentioned.
“However I truly by no means had the possibility to actually discover that as a trainee as a result of I acquired instructed that I ought to be a rapper, you realize? So there was a part the place I might hate to rap. I used to be like, ‘This isn’t me like, this isn’t the Jennie that I envisioned in my head like, I don’t suppose I’m a rapper.’ So there was positively a burnout season… a second the place I used to be denying myself simply because the concept that I didn’t decide this path that any person else has picked for me.”
However after taking a while off and listening to music and looking out again on the group’s movies and photographs of herself performing, Jennie mentioned she noticed herself truly having fun with rapping on stage. “That’s the second the place I accepted the truth that that is part of me… proper now I’m fortunate sufficient to have a option to be a loopy rapper and in addition sing each time I need to,” she mentioned.
The chat additionally touched on the group’s historic Coachella units in entrance of 150,000 folks in individual (and hundreds of thousands extra on-line), which Jennie mentioned was essentially the most “thrilling and nerve-wracking factor that occurred in our lives,” particularly because it got here in the course of BLACKPINK’s U.S. tour.
“However to me personally, the toughest half was as a result of we’ve carried out the Sahara Tent 4 years in the past, I had an concept of what Coachella was now,” she mentioned. “As a result of 4 years in the past, I used to be like, ‘I suppose it’s a competition the place, you realize, folks simply rock out and should you like your music, they might simply you realize dance together with you.’”
However once they had been bumped as much as headliners, Jennie mentioned she needed to sit down with bandmates Lisa, Jisoo and Rosé for a actuality test in regards to the unreal second. “[I was like], ‘Guys, that is taking place,’” she recalled about going from watching Ariana Grande headline the fest in 2019 to being the primary stage points of interest.
“I feel it was my first time crying simply as quickly as I used to be off stage,” she mentioned of the overwhelming feeling that brought on her to burst into tears after leaving the stage. “It was so emotional, like, I used to be so proud, the exhausting work that we placed on and simply the overwhelming feeling that we acquired from the gang… it was simply a number of feelings.”
Hearken to the complete interview beneath.
