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It’s already been four years since BLACKPINK debuted, but Jennie seems to remember the group’s pre-debut stories like they were yesterday. In an interview with ELLE magazine, Jennie revealed what her fellow members were like when they first joined the company.
Jennie was the first member of BLACKPINK to join YG Entertainment. After moving back to South Korea from New Zealand at the age of 14, she auditioned for the company with Rihanna’s “Take a Bow”. As we all now know, she passed the audition with a successful performance and became a trainee in 2010.
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The next trainee to join the company was Lisa, the agency's first non-Korean trainee at the time and now the company's first non-Korean idol. Lisa also auditioned in 2010 at an open call in Thailand. Though 4,000 applicants auditioned, Lisa was the only one to pass. She soon became an official trainee in 2011, a year after Jennie.
According to Jennie, young trainee Lisa was a “tall girl with a perfect body”. The thing that struck Jennie most was Lisa’s aptitude for dance, and her uncanny ability to learn choreography routines almost instantly. Lisa revealed she was “always singing and dancing as a child”, and the years of practice definitely paid off.
After Lisa came Jisoo, the eldest member of BLACKPINK. Jisoo joined YG Entertainment in August 2011, passing her audition at the age of 16.
Jennie revealed that despite joining later than many trainees, Jisoo was adamant not to fall behind. She went on to say that Jisoo’s determination kept up her motivation as an existing trainee.
Last but not least, Rosé didn’t join the company until 2012. At the age of 15, she auditioned at an open call for YG Entertainment in 2012, beating out 700 other auditionees for a spot as a trainee.
Although she was the last to join her groupmates, her impact was just as important. Jennie explained that through Rosé, the BLACKPINK members learned the true reason behind becoming musical artists. In turn, Rosé explained that Jennie helped her out with the cultural differences between Australia and South Korea.
Although competition between trainees is often fierce, according to Jennie, the BLACKPINK members had nothing but love for each other from the start. They lived together long before their debut, bonding every night over ordered food, scary teacher stories, and the shared hardship of training.
No wonder the BLACKPINK members have such a close bond to this day.
