Blackpink’s Jennie says she feels “restricted” in Korea

K-pop group Blackpink’s Jennie made an appearance on the podcast Dua Lipa: At Your Service where she admitted that she had often felt restricted in the Korean music industry.

She added that she had felt frustrated and lost after being assigned a rap position while she was a trainee.

“There was a moment where I was denying myself because of the idea that I didn’t pick this path, that somebody else has picked for me. After taking some time off of work and listening to music in general, and then I actually looked back to the videos that I performed and when I was doing lives, to like actually see myself like enjoying rapping on stage and that’s the moment where I accepted the fact that, that is a part of me.“

Dua brought up how Jennie seems to like their recent song Tally which was both criticized and applauded for its explicit lyrics.

“Starting my career in Korea as a K-pop artist has restricted so many sides of me where it wasn’t just allowed to be shown because I’m a K-pop idol, and I think I was scared also to express myself. And as things grew over time, I was able to express myself, and people would see it as breaking the boundaries rather than she’s doing something that she’s not allowed to do and being able to open a new chapter for people that are starting the business.”

Referring to the song Tally, she admitted: “The song Tally was one of the first songs that we actually say the F word, at first when I started performing the song I couldn’t even say it out loud.”