JENNIE’s global resonance rests on a rare duality: commanding spectacle at the highest level shaped by BLACKPINK’s maximalist precision while maintaining a closeness that feels candid and human through her public persona. Her first solo album, Ruby (named after her full stage name, Jennie Ruby Jane), gives sonic references to the multi-layered images and a spectrum of identities she has accumulated over the years.

The album moves through an expansive creative network including Amy Allen, Tayla Parx, Diplo, Mike Will Made It and Rob Bisel, alongside collaborators such as Kali Uchis, Dominic Fike, Doechii, Dua Lipa, FKJ and more. The throughline is not genre but parity: a meeting of artists operating at comparable levels across both alternative and mainstream spaces.

Sonically, Ruby traces an internal landscape rather than a linear arc. Tracks move between self-possessed confidence (“like JENNIE”), neon-hued desire and volatility (“Love Hangover”), reflective intimacy (“Seoul City”) and quiet reckoning of bonds eroded by time (“Twin”). If BLACKPINK embodies intensity at its peak, Ruby expands outward, showing range, restraint, and emotional variance. The result is historic, making her the first Korean female solo artist to place three songs on the Billboard Hot 100 in the same week. At its core sits “ZEN,” an assertion of authorship and self-governance. Informed by Shakespearean references (As You Like It), Ruby claims narrative control, positioning JENNIE not as an artist in transition, but one for whom evolution feels intentional and inevitable. – Billboard Korea

cr. Billboard