Blackpink brings its pop arsenal to Barcelona

BarcelonaThe show hasn't even started yet, but the audience has been singing along for a while, blasting through the sound system. They follow along, wielding a large, pink and black plastic hammer that lights up when he moves it—one of the gadgets of the most successful merchandising of the night - while images of Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa, the members of Blackpink, the Korean band of the moment that performed this Saturday, August 9 at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in Barcelona, are projected on the screen.

The group appears on a platform that rises in the middle of the stage and starts the night singing Kill this love with a spectacle of firecrackers, fire, and a group of nearly twenty dancers who follow the rhythm militarily. The aesthetic is dominated by pink, and the effect created by the audience's hammers is curious, as they become that same color everywhere. After Pink Venom and How do you like that?, which lights up the catwalk to the second stage in front, the show progresses with Playing with fire and Shut down.

The group has had some technical problems because in recent concerts they used a double screen, which in Barcelona was reduced to half. Hidden behind the screen, a band of drums, bass, guitar, and keyboard adds muscle to the live show—it is projected at times. The concert is divided into five acts separated by interludes that allow for costume and register changes. There is no stage design, except for a few objects that the dancers themselves introduce and remove. Both hours and a half advance with some pauses, but the Barcelona fans are tireless: they jump, sing, cry, and maintain the energy during the interludes. Some dance almost violently, while others are hypnotized, transformed into human tripods holding a phone.

Each member of the band has their solo moment: Jisoo dresses in white and sequins to perform. Earthquake and Your love; Lisa presents herself as a dark goddess with Thunder and Fxck up the world; Jennie raps with the air of rockstar; and Rosé slows down the pace with acoustic guitar, bare vocals and a heartfelt moment with the audience before exploding with APT, her collaboration with Bruno Mars. These are the songs each of them has released solo, and they've also managed to conquer the charts.

Blackpink is a project created and carefully thought out by YG Entertainment, the Korean entertainment company responsible for positioning K-pop and marketing it globally. The Deadline tourIt's a massive high school party, celebrating the relationship of the four inseparable friends and bringing the dances that have gone viral on social media to life. With two albums released, the band celebrated nine years of success on the same day as the Barcelona concert - there was a failed attempt to celebrate it with a Happy Birthday that hasn't finished being sung.

The sound hasn't been impeccable and at times the tuning hasn't been up to par with a concert of this magnitude, but the audience has bought every song and the stands have trembled with the most thrashing ones. Jump, latest single of the band, has displayed all its potential with malice and has made everyone jump. Then they sounded Boombayah, Ddu-du ddu-du, As if It's your last and reggaeton in Korean Forever Young.

The closing ceremony came with an encore that was not fully understood as such. Kick it The night closed under a full moon, which was left alone after a final wave of firecrackers. The audience, of all ages and wearing costumes coordinated with ink and pink, left the venue shaking the luminous hammer as if wanting to retain something more of what they had experienced during the night.

[The photographs in this article were provided by Live Nation. They are from a concert on the tour of Blackpink but not the one in Barcelona because the artists did not allow photojournalists to be accredited]