Mon, August 3, 2026 at 11:00 AM UTC
Jennie is out of time. “Honestly, it’s not on my side,” she says with a sense of urgency. It’s spring and she’s in L.A., where she’s been recording new music. “I’m constantly in the studio. My fingers are crossed to have music out for the summer festivals.”
Weeks later, it’d be clear the hustle was worth it: Jennie would perform new songs like “Less than a Lover,” “Lock It Down,” and “Heaven” at festivals around the world, including Lollapalooza in Chicago, where she’d headline the coveted Saturday night slot just as Jennie, separate from the K-pop group <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/music/a70001315/is-blackpink-still-together-2026/” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>Blackpink that made her a household name across much of the planet. Fans would be in a frenzy, piling into the YouTube comments section of the official “Less than a Lover” video; 10 hours after its drop on July 24, it would already have 3.6 million views. (In the following days, the self-directed video of Jennie and a man swept up in a summer fling would surpass 12 million views and be the number one trending music video on the platform worldwide.)
But right now, as we chat, none of that has happened yet, and it’s clear that Jennie is feeling the pressure. It’s a familiar sentiment—she’s lived in a go, go, go state for the past decade. Blackpink debuted in 2016 with a nonstop work ethic, and the group currently has more than 40 billion streams and has sold more than 20 million albums. They’re not just one of the most successful K-pop acts to cross over into the Western market but one of the best-selling girl groups of all time. Blackpink’s most recent EP, February’sDeadline, coincided with the end of a 2025 global stadium tour—and that was after Jennie had released and toured for her first solo project, Ruby, in the spring of 2025.
“Being honest, it was a crazy year for me, the past year,” Jennie says. “I never had the time to sit down, adapt, and really embrace what Ruby did for me.” The album was an audacious invitation into Jennie’s personal musical world, praised by critics for its brash, unapologetic, and experimental sound. With features from Dua Lipa, Kali Uchis, Doechii, and more, Rubyquickly hit number 7 on the Billboard 200 and had multiple singles, including the bombastic “Like JENNIE” and “Mantra,” on the Billboard Hot 100.
The success gave her confidence, Jennie tells me now, but it also fed her hunger for more—and spiked the appetite of her ever-growing fan base. Put simply, there are many people anticipating what’s next. Jennie has accumulated nearly 90 million followers on Instagram alone, to say nothing of her fervent communities on fan platforms like Weverse. (For context, pop sensations like Olimillion Instagram followers, respectively.)
Jennie is also itching to show people what else she can do. She acted in HBO’s drama The Idol and is a regular at the Met Gala, where, soon after we speak, she would walk the steps in a custom Chanel gown made of 15,000 sequins. Somehow, she found a moment to collaborate with Tame Impala on a dance-floor-ready “Dracula” remix, which has become a hit so viral that Real Housewives are using it to create TikToks. “Man, I love seeing all the videos of people singing along,” she says of the latter. “It’s so fun for me.”
And it’s a long way away from the life 14-year-old Jennie Kim led. The now-30-year-old, who grew up between South Korea and New Zealand and signed with YG Entertainment as a teen trainee, knows she’s in the middle of something huge—and that she’ll be held to account accordingly.
This moment in pop music feels unique, a response to the previous era of the undercooked star who built a career off of viral fame alone. Our current heroes aren’t ingenues who perfected the art of a brilliant rollout on their first try. They’re long-hustling songwriters finally getting a mainstream break (Charli xcx, Raye) or young stars constantly redefining themselves (Billie Eilish, Tate McRae). Or, like Jennie, they’re coming from a part of the industry built around the old-school notions of incubation and professionalism. Much has been written about so-called K-pop factories, but the fact remains that they have produced some of the sleekest, hardest-working stars of this generation.
Of course, it’s one thing to rise to fame as part of a well-trained unit and quite another to then break out on your own. The type of fame that a group like Blackpink has together rarely translates to the same level of influence for its individual members. Take a look at history and the pop groups of yesteryear: There is almost always a Beyoncé to every Destiny’s Child, one clear star primed for greater heights once a band parts ways or outgrows its fan base.
Blackpink, however, is not your normal group, and Jennie is not the only member currently flooding everyone’s playlists, feeds, and screens. Jisoo (80 million Instagram followers), Rosé (83.2 million), and Lisa (105 million) have also released solo projects in the past few years, each spawning hit singles and new label deals outside of their YG contracts. It’s all the more impressive given that to be a woman in music is to be up against an expectation of excellence at all times.
High-profile female artists have always dealt with intense scrutiny, from vicious tabloids and invasive paparazzi trying to catch them in the daring act of being imperfect. But the internet has now reached a boiling point of critique, and the call can often be coming from inside the house as parasocial love turns to obsession and the most obsessive fans become the most critical. Commenters on social and fan platforms engage in endless discourse about everything from singers’ styling choices to their body language. Viral analytical TikToks break down stars’ lyrics and rip apart their tracks.
While working on Ruby, Jennie says, her perfectionist nature—both learned and innate—got the best of her. She spent a year in a self-described bubble, driving toward a singular goal, she recalls. “I made sure I didn’t step out of that bubble, so I stayed focused.” She knew from firsthand experience that her own fans would demand nothing less.
In some ways, the people who love an artist as intensely as Jennie’s base loves her have started acting more like business managers than fans. It’s not hard to see the slippery slope within this kind of relationship because a fandom’s passion is foundational to an artist’s success.
All across pop music, hardcore stans campaign for tours, petition for splashy magazine covers, and band together to stream songs until those songs hit number one. They have learned the inner workings of the music business, know the names of everyone on their favorite star’s teams, and have become experts on the qualifications for awards shows. And most of this happens on social media, where geographical borders cannot limit their connection, influence, or purchasing power.
The dynamic has left many people in hyper-engaged fandoms with a sense of what they’re owed for their efforts: more music, more shows, more perfection.
Jennie is still figuring out the resulting creative push and pull. “To have a strange form of second chance to build my own career from now on with the amount of experience and love that I’ve gotten from people is only an advantage,” she says. She mentions her fans specifically many times throughout our conversation, expressing her desire to give them new music they’ll like, to meet them at her summer shows, to try out new fashion they might enjoy.
Still, as an artist, you want your art to reflect you, first and foremost, before it’s turned over to the rest of the world. To get to a place where she can create outside of 90 million people’s demands and to balance the beauty of her fandom with the pressure that comes with it, Jennie says she checks social media on an on-again, off-again cadence.
“When I’m releasing something, when I have new projects that I’m sharing with my fans, I like to stay online,” she explains. “To see their reactions is sometimes the sweetest thing ever.” But in moments like this spring, where she’s locking in on new music, she all but throws away her phone.
Jennie also checks in more with herself, she says. “I’m becoming friends with my body. There are definitely things that I’ve been insecure about. I’m a very petite person, and early on, I felt the need to make myself look tall,” she says. “But I’m learning to love my own body and to see what works on my body the best. I’m more confident with myself.”
Keeping her grounded, as always, is the rest of Blackpink. In spite of the way critics often stack the women up against each other, they’ll always be bonded by their shared experience, says Jennie. It’s something she’s thankful for, that she can still lean on them even as they each step into their own.
“I grew up with the girls,” she says. “We were always together, for the hard times and the good times. We took care of each other, and we gave advice to each other. I never felt lost.”
When Jennie thinks on who she was a decade ago and who she is now, she sees the same girl. If anything, she’s just stronger and more self-assured, a classic coming-of-age evolution for any woman, pop star or not.
“In my head, I’m still such a free and young spirit that’s on a journey to find herself,” she says. “The past 10 years have taught me how to communicate, how to embrace things I’m not comfortable with.” Getting through all the growing pains required what she describes as a “survival instinct”—she knew what it was that she needed to do and figured out in real time how to achieve it.
“I’m so proud of myself for designing that life from an early age,” she adds. She didn’t follow any specific idols but does cite one icon she wants to emulate moving forward. “Rihanna will always be my biggest dream in terms of how much influence she has over pop culture and also music culture and art itself,” she reveals. “She’s so inspiring for me. To find that for myself would be a dream.” (Jennie pauses to drop a reminder that she’s available for more acting roles: “I’m bilingual, and to act in my second language does teach you a lot of things. If anyone is looking for this, I’m here.”)
In the meantime, after the second album is out and the festival circuit is finished, Jennie is ready to finally have some time to just be. She’s already dreaming of trotting around Europe, visiting sun-soaked beaches and sipping Aperol Spritzes between dips in the ocean. Maybe she’ll experiment more with fashion (“It’s a part of me now,” she explains). Maybe she’ll host an elaborate dinner party for her friends (“I don’t have time to do that right now; I love being a guest,” she laughs). At said dinner party, she might even serve homemade drinks. “I want to learn how to do the little shaky things and make a pretty cocktail,” she says. “I suck at it right now.”
Honestly, maybe that’s okay. Creating something that feels true if not quite flawless is something that’s also been on her mind, a proposition she hopes her fans can get behind. She knows they’ll be watching. She knows they’ll read this very story and take to the comments with their own opinions.
“I’m more in control of who’s in the studio and who I’m working with,” she explains, “but I’m definitely not in a space where I want to make everything perfect. If anything, I’m heading the other way, where I might sound horrible and may not be perfect, but I’m just trying to enjoy and be less serious and be me. I’m not a ‘let’s be perfect’ person right now. I’m trying to stay on a good vibe.”
That’s likely why, after this summer, Jennie will find herself, for the first time in her life, without the next two to three years of her time meticulously planned out. The mystery, for her at least, is thrilling.
“I’m leaving a little blank space in my head to see if there’s anything else I want to reach for,” she says. “It’s very special, the unknowingness. It gives me space to just think. I’m seeing it as a great opportunity. But for now, I’m spending every minute and second in it.”
Lead image: GownRoberto Cavalli.Covers (from top left, top to bottom): All clothing and accessoriesChanel; jacketChanelfromPechuga Vintage, bra and briefsChanel, broochBill BlassfromeBay; gownRoberto Cavalli; dressLudovic de Saint Sernin; bodysuitArea, earringsDavid Webb, braceletVerdura; all clothing, accessories, and jewelryChrome Hearts.
Styled byBrandon Tan. Hair byEvanie FraustoforRedken.Makeup byLee SolatCO-OP. Manicure byMei KawajiriforChanel Beauty. Set design byMilena GorumatArtistry Agency. Movement direction bySadie Wilking.
(Video) Director of photography:Derrick Woodyard.
