BLACKPINK made history on Saturday night at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival as the first K-pop band to headline the event.

BLACKPINK is a four member K-pop girl group under YG Entertainment. Comprised of members Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa and Rosé, the group debuted — after perfecting their craft for several years in a traditonal K-pop trainee program — in 2016 with the songs “Whistle” and “Boombayah.”

The ladies arrived in style for their headlining set Saturday night, with sparkly black and pink outfits that they donned while performing in front of what looked like a large temple. They kicked off the evening with “Pink Venom,” a hit off their latest album, “Born Pink.”

The group took viewers back to their earlier days with hit “Kill This Love,” which featured a rock show-style display of pyrotechnics that was softened when they introduced themselves before transitioning into one of their most-streamed songs, “How You Like That.”

Throughout the years, BLACKPINK has released various albums and singles that helped push the band into international stardom. Early in their tenure, back in 2018, they made three Billboard records:

• “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du” debuted at No. 55, making it the highest charting hit ever by a K-pop girl group on the chart.
• Sophomore EP “Square Up” debuted at No. 40 to become the highest charting album by an all-female K-pop group at the time.
• The band debuted at No. 1 on the Emerging Artists chart, becoming the first female K-pop group to do so.

And it’s only gone up from there. Nine of BLACKPINK’s songs have reached the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The group’s collaboration with Selena Gomez, “Ice Cream,” peaked the highest at No. 13.

If that’s not enough of an explanation as to why BLACKPINK was chosen to headline, the energy displayed and top-notch production value of even just the first 15 minutes should have been reason enough. The music is fun, and the popularity of the band could point to a broader cultural shift back to the girl-power-dominated culture of the ’90s and early oughts.

Their Saturday set also showed just how far they’ve come since their first time performing at Coachella in 2019. That original showing was filled with just as many well-choreographed numbers as Saturday’s, but there’s something to be said about the artists’ stage presence this year — they seemed even more confident and at home on the Coachella stage four years after their stop in Indio kick started their debut North American tour.

Perhaps the most atypical — but refreshing — decision the women made during their Coachella headlining debut was to give each member the opportunity to perform one solo song off their individually released single albums. Jennie kicked things off with “You And Me,” Jisoo performed the recently released “Flower,” confetti flew over the crowd and sparks rained on stage as Rosé sang “On The Ground,” and “Lisa” showed off her rap skills with the more material girl-esque “Money” (which started with her dancing on a stripper pole).By the 45-minute mark, everyone was going crazy for “Boombayah” and “Lovesick Girls,” and the audience’s LED light bracelets were blinking in synch with the infectious beats.

Although the women didn’t bring out a special guest, another group of stars appeared with BLACKPINK: the dancers, who were comprised of a mix of men and women of all races as they moved with the four women on the cat walk extending into the crowd.

Rose spoke to the band’s previous appearance at the festival in 2019 pointing back to the Sahara tent where they performed.“This is a dream come true for us, thank you so much,” said Rose.

cr. Desert Sun