From the moment BLACK PINK, the globally acclaimed K-Pop girl-group, released their first single Square One back in 2016, Jennie Kim, the band’s renowned rapper (and singer) has taken the world by storm.

Born in Seoul, South Korea, Jennie’s long held passion for music led her to join the K-Pop training program as a teenager and eventually joined the band under YG Entertainment. Her influence however has gone far beyond the reach of music: as an ambassador for the likes of Chanel and Calvin Klein, Kim has become something of a fashion icon to her global fan base and she also recently dipped her toes into acting with a debut role in the HBO series The Idol.

In Dua Lipa: At Your Service, Kim joins the podcast host, fellow pop singer Dua Lipa to explore and discuss the theme of “bringing your culture to the world through music”. Here are 5 things that we learnt when Jennie Kim met Dua Lipa.

1. Jennie’s formative years were spent in New Zealand and South Korea

“I moved to New Zealand when I was 10 and I really jumped in without knowing what to expect,” she says. “The only thing I could say when I went to New Zealand was ‘hi, my name is Jennie’ but I adjusted to the lifestyle there within six months”.

It was an experience that struck a chord with Dua, who also balanced two cultures growing up in London and Kosovo. The pair resonate over how this unique, multicultural upbringing influenced their growth both as women and artists.

2. It took six years for Jennie to get through the K-Pop training system

“I love to tell people about the work ethic we have towards our job and how we go through such an intense training season to be able to drop an album”, she says. “I spent six years before I put my first album out as BLACKPINK just training to be who I am right now”.

Jennie talks about the importance of cultivating a unique personality while navigating the K-Pop system explaining that their management, in recognition of this, carefully selected and combined the four girls who eventually formed the band: “The girls and I tried to find our own voice when we were training with 30 other people and I guess the label saw (this)”.

3. Her label made her a rapper because of her English language skills

Fans refer to her as ‘rapper Jennie,’ but she reveals that this role was originally assigned by her label based on her skills in English, rather than being a personal aspiration.

“I’ve never really said this anywhere, but I want to,” she says. “After our debut we did six songs where I would just rap and along the way I got confused, because the more I did music, the more I came to realise there is a big side of me that loves to sing and play with my vocals, but I never really had the chance to explore that (until later) because I got told that I should be a rapper.”

4. One of Jennie’s favourite BLACKPINK songs to perform is Tally

“Starting my career as a K-Pop artist in Korea has restricted so many sides of me, which weren’t allowed to be shown because I am a K-Pop idol and I was scared to express myself.

“I think the song Tally was one of the first songs where we say the F-word, and at first when I performed the song I couldn’t even say it outloud. I would move away from the mic,” she reveals. “Then more fans were loving the song and I was connecting with Blinks (BLACKPINK fans) whilst I was performing on stage and they were the ones that gave me my confidence and support to enjoy the song.”

5. BLACKPINK were the first K-Pop group ever to headline Coachella

Dua Lipa asks Jennie to walk her through the historic moment BLACKPINK headlined Coachella. “It was”, admits Jennie “the most exciting and nerve-racking thing to happen in our lives. We really knew what it meant to be four girls from different worlds getting together in a group and being on a stage that we fantasised about”.

Jennie went on to say how proud she was that they even infused their stage design with a touch of Korea. “The set was a Korean roof called Hanok and we started by wearing traditional Korean dress called Hanbok – it was a short moment but we really wanted to bring our culture, especially to Coachella.”

cr. BBC