The group reunited in February, toured through January, and then more or less vanished as a unit — while each member quietly had the biggest individual year of her career. We did the math on who’s actually running BLACKPINK right now.
Somewhere between Rosé accepting a golden gramophone-adjacent award for a song that isn’t a BLACKPINK song, Lisa signing on as an executive producer of her own Netflix movie, and Jennie logging her fourth European festival headline slot of the summer, it became worth asking a fairly simple question: is BLACKPINK still, functionally, a group? Not in the sentimental sense — obviously the four of them still like each other and still make music together. In the operational sense. As in: who’s actually driving the calendar this year, and is it the group, or is it four people who happen to still share a comeback schedule?
To be fair to the group side of the ledger: 2026 did start with BLACKPINK, properly, as BLACKPINK. “DEADLINE” landed in February, their first full comeback since Born Pink in 2022, led by “GO” — the first title track in the group’s history performed entirely in English. The “DEADLINE” world tour, which had actually kicked off the previous July, wrapped its final date in Hong Kong on January 26, closing out sixteen cities and history-making stops at Goyang Stadium and Wembley Stadium, both first-ever feats for a K-pop girl group.
And then, as a unit, BLACKPINK went quiet. No new group single. No new group tour announcement. Just four increasingly busy individual calendars, each one somehow bigger than the last.
Here’s the thing about BLACKPINK’s “off season” — it hasn’t looked like anyone was resting.
Became the first K-pop artist ever nominated in both a group and a solo category at the same major U.S. award show, then won two awards on the same night — “Song of the Year” for “APT.” (with Bruno Mars) and Best Group for BLACKPINK. Picked up a Grammy nomination in a main category and a first-ever K-pop, first-ever non-Anglophone #1 on IFPI’s global singles chart, on top of a Guinness-certified record for fastest song to a billion streams.
Signed on as lead actress and executive producer of a Netflix romantic comedy inspired by “Notting Hill.” Joined the Met Gala’s host committee in May — a first for any K-pop artist. Became the first girl-group member to perform at a FIFA World Cup opening ceremony. Booked a November Las Vegas residency, the first ever for a K-pop act.
Released “like JENNIE” to a #1 chart debut, her biggest solo moment since “SOLO.” Then spent the summer collecting festival headline slots across Spain, Poland, and beyond — by some counts, seven separate festivals, more live festival dates than most solo pop stars manage in a full year.
The quietest 2026 of the four on the individual-headline front, but far from idle — continuing acting work and brand ambassadorships that have run steadily since her 2023 solo debut, while remaining the member most visibly anchoring the group’s collective public appearances.
So, Who’s Running This?
None of this is really a scandal, or even much of a surprise — it’s just worth noticing how lopsided the year has been once you actually line it up. One group release. Four record books being rewritten individually, in categories that have nothing to do with each other: film production, sports ceremonies, casino residencies, main-category Grammy noms. If you tried to build a single “BLACKPINK 2026” highlight reel, roughly 90% of the footage wouldn’t feature all four of them in the same frame.
- This is, in miniature, exactly the arrangement other groups now reach for. We wrote last week about TWICE’s current re-contract talks and the reflexive comparison to “the BLACKPINK model” — group activity centralized at one company, solo careers distributed elsewhere. Watching BLACKPINK’s actual 2026 calendar, the model isn’t a hypothetical anymore. It’s just what’s already happening, in real time, to the group that supposedly invented it.
- The upside is obvious and shouldn’t be undersold. Every Grammy nod, every festival headline, every Netflix deal is free global marketing for a group that doesn’t even need to release music to stay in the conversation. YG’s accountants are, presumably, not losing sleep.
- The trade-off is just as obvious. A group identity built and sustained mostly through four separate, increasingly divergent solo brands is a different animal than one sustained through regular comebacks. At some point, “BLACKPINK” risks becoming less a group people are waiting on and more an occasional reunion tour four superstars take a break from their day jobs to go on.
Whether that’s a problem depends entirely on what you think a group is for at year ten. If it’s for making music together, 2026 has been thin. If it’s for being a globally recognized umbrella that makes each individual venture bigger by association, this might be the best year BLACKPINK has ever had.
I don’t think anyone should feel bad for BLACKPINK here — this is what winning looks like when you’ve been at it for a decade and the entire industry has finally built enough infrastructure (Grammys, VMAs, World Cups, Vegas) to actually hold four K-pop solo careers at once. That’s a genuinely new thing, and it’s worth enjoying rather than worrying over.
But I’d gently push back on anyone still describing 2026 as “a BLACKPINK year.” It’s a Rosé year, a Lisa year, a Jennie year, and a rather more understated Jisoo year, all happening to share a group chat. Whether the 10th anniversary in August turns that back into one story or just confirms it’s now four is, honestly, the only thing about this group still worth waiting to find out.
— KpopWave Editorial
Reporting cross-verified across YG Entertainment release materials, Namuwiki member pages, Esquire Korea, Elle Korea, MHN Sports, and Korean entertainment press coverage of individual member activities (2025–2026). Award and record claims reflect status as reported at time of writing. Quoted material is limited and independently confirmed across multiple outlets.