BLACKPINK’s Jennie and Jisoo’s Upcoming Solo Comeback: Hit Or Miss?

BLACKINK’s Jennie and Jisoo have joined their mother and brother’s hands, respectively, to establish their own labels, ODD ATELIER and Blissoo, for their individual activities. Since BLACKPINK members ended their exclusive individual contracts with YG Entertainment in August last year and only renewed their contracts as a team, it has already been more than half a year since they started their solo career related to individual activities.

Jennie is the co-CEO and only artist of ODD ATELIER. Her mother is mainly in charge of company management and Jennie is leading the company from the front. Jennie hired a manager who worked for YG and put him up as a management director. She also took some YG employees who worked with her to the new label.

As a solo artist without YG, Jennie started with her appearance on variety shows. She appeared on KBS 2TV’s music talk show “The Seasons – Lee Hyo-ri’s Red Carpet,” and has been one of the main cast members of tvN’s entertainment show “Apartment 404.” However, the result is not as good as expected as the show itself is receiving harsh criticism for repeated content.

Jisoo is joining hands with her brother, the head of the infant health functional food brand BioMom. BioMom also posted a recruitment on a job search site to find employees for Jisoo’s label. Jisoo is also known to be working with a manager who used to work with her under YG.

As Jisoo wanted to be an actress, she made a cameo in the movie “Dr. Cheon and Lost Talisman” last year. She will make her screen debut as Lee Ji-hye in the movie “Omniscient Viewpoint” (director Kim Byung-woo), which has been filming since December last year. Attention is focusing on whether Jisoo, who had a hard time due to controversy over her acting skills in her debut drama, JTBC’s “Snowdrop,” will be able to show her growth through this movie. The movie will be released sometime this year.

Furthermore, Jennie and Jisoo had a significant time in their solo careers as singers. Previously, they were able to pursue solo careers with the full support of YG, but now they have to continue their solo careers on their own. In particular, Jennie was recently rumored to have a comeback in June, which she denied. Jennie said, “I’m going to work on a new song. There has been no discussion about whether it will be a single or an EP as well as the release date.”

Earlier, Jennie released her solo song “SOLO,” a Teddy production, but it is unlikely that she will collaborate with Teddy again in this solo work. Teddy is currently producing a girl group himself and will also launch a girl group through Mnet’s “I Land 2,” so it is unclear whether he will be able to produce Jennie’s solo.

Meanwhile, question marks are raised about Jisoo’s solo singing career. Jisoo was very popular with “Flower” thanks to YG’s excellent production, but she did not stand out musically compared to other members of BLACKPINK. Critics say that their expectations for her as a solo artist are not high as she has to depend on the color or concept of the song, not her skills.