BLACKPINK become first K-pop group to hit 2billion YouTube views on a music video with ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’

4 January, 2023

blackpink ddu du ddu du music video 2 billion views

BLACKPINK have become the first K-pop group to amass 2billion views on YouTube on a music video with 2018 single ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’.

The quartet’s label, YG Entertainment, took to Twitter earlier today (January 4) to officially announce that the ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’ music video had hit the 2billion mark on YouTube, making BLACKPINK the first K-pop group in history to achieve this feat on a single music video.

BLACKPINK now rank just behind soloist Psy’s viral 2012 hit ‘Gangnam Style’, the music video for which now has 4.6 billion views at the time of publication. Second to the ‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’ music video is another BLACKPINK video – the official ‘Kill This Love’ music video sits at second place with 1.7billion views and counting.

The video treatment for Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ became the first on YouTube to ever hit a billion views in the platform’s history, marking the establishment of YouTube’s Billion Views Club. Aside from ‘Kill This Love’ and ‘DDU-DU-DDU-DU’, the music video for ‘How You Like That’ is also part of the BVC, currently sitting at 1.1billion views. Fellow K-pop act BTS are also part of the club with several videos, including the music videos for ‘DNA’, ‘Boy With Luv’, ‘Dynamite’ and more.

‘DDU-DU DDU-DU’ was released in June 2018 as the lead single of the four-piece’s 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 in-house YG Entertainment producer Teddy.

In September 2022, BLACKPINK dropped their sophomore studio album ‘Born Pink’, marking their first music as a unit in two years, featuring title track ‘Shut Down’. The record was preceded by its pre-release single ‘Pink Venom’ in August, and also includes ‘Ready For Love’, which premiered at a virtual concert staged in collaboration with PUBG Mobile.

In NME’s three-star review of ‘Born Pink’, Tanu I. Raj wrote: “Now that BLACKPINK seem to have whetted their appetite for experimentation, let’s hope they go all the way on the next record – flip the script completely, propelled by the confidence that no matter what they do, they’ll come out on top.”

Days ago, YG Entertainment confirmed a 2023 release for member Jisoo’s solo debut. “BLACKPINK’s Jisoo is currently working hard on recording her solo album. While carrying out a busy world tour schedule since last year, she finished the album jacket photo shoot and worked on music production whenever she got the time in order to keep the promise with fans,” the company’s statement read. “She will greet [fans] soon with good news.”

This will make Jisoo the fourth and final member of the group to go solo. Jennie was the first BLACKPINK member to do so, with the single ‘Solo’ in 2018. This was followed by members Rosé and Lisa in 2021, with the releases ‘Lalisa’ and ‘R’, respectively.

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