Photo by @jakirakamaly – (from left to right) BLACKPINK members Lisa, Jisoo, Rosé + Jennie — Photo by @jakirakamaly – (from left to right) *BLACKPINK* members Lisa, Jisoo, Rosé + Jennie

BLACKPINK finally came to London to perform at The SSE Arena in Wembley on May 22nd for their "IN YOUR AREA" World Tour with KIA and I'm still in awe. If you're unfamiliar with BLACKPINK, they are a South Korean girl group, formed byYG Entertainment, consisting of members Rosé, Jennie, Lisa and Jisoo. Rosé and Jisoo are the vocalists of the group and Jennie and Lisa are the rappers, however, the rap-line often sing on the tracks as well. They are currently the highest-charting female K-pop act, peaking at #55 with "Ddu-du Ddu-du" on the Billboard Hot 100 and #40 on the Billboard Hot 200 with their (second) EP, "SQUARE UP". They also recently performed at the Coachella festival so you may have heard about them or seen videos of them online. Basically, they are talented queens and they're doing so well and I'm so proud of them.

Honestly, I haven't always been the biggest fan of BLACKPINK but really, I think it's YG that I have a problem with. I always wondered how BLACKPINK managed to get so famous, considering that they've been around since 2016 and you can count the number of songs that they have on all your fingers and a few of your toes. I mean, it's not their fault that they have a limited number of songs, of course, as this is to do with the company that they're under and the fact that the girls do not write the entirety of their songs. I personally feel like they have really gotten lucky to have blown up worldwide, as there is technically not much to show for their fame. However, the girls are insanely talented but it just feels as though they're not being given the chance to live up to their full potential. I'm not a hater btw so please don't come for me lmao, just sharing my opinion. As of late, I have really been loving them but I could never understand how someone could die-hard STAN a group that doesn't have much music out there. But, the group also provide content for their fans with their variety show "BLACKPINK HOUSE" so I can understand why people love them. They're hilarious, especially Jisoo; she kills me.

I have posted some of my (own) photos from the concert in this post but the resolution isn't great so head over to my Instagram to check out more photos and videos from the show! So, here goes... my BLACKPINK first-time concert experience. Grab a snack, sit down and I hope you enjoy reading!

BUYING TICKETS:

My sister, a friend and I had bought tickets to see BLACKPINK during the tickets pre-sale. Our friend bought the tickets for the 3 of us on O2 Priority so I'm unable to speak about my experience with purchasing tickets as I didn't actually purchase them first-hand. In terms of ticket prices though, I wasn't very impressed and neither was a lot of others. Prices for tickets started at £65 + fees and went up to as high as £400 + fees (and this was only at face value!) As you can imagine, fans were mad about these prices as the group had only released 8 songs by the time the European leg was announced and tickets went on sale. However, the group released their newest EP"Kill This Love" on April 4th of 2019 so, luckily for the fans who attend after this date, there will be 12 songs (13, if you include their collaboration "Kiss & Make Up" with Dua Lipa) on the setlist, plus the solo performances and the "Ddu-du Ddu-du" Remix. This tour began in 2018 so for the fans who attended their concert(s) before the most recent EP was released basically paid the same amount of money for a less amount of (original) songs by the group. This is weird, in my opinion, and really doesn't make sense to me. What if the fans who attended at dates prior to the new EP drop consider the newer songs to be their favourite(s) by the group? They'll now have to wait until the next time the group comes to their city in order to hear these new songs. I'm glad the London date was after the release of the "Kill This Love" EP because it's my favourite so far.

Anyway, in terms of tickets, we decided to purchase seated tickets as we were not very keen on spending more than £100 for just one ticket. My ticket, alone, was £97 including booking fees and stuff and our tickets were the second cheapest tickets you could get. *count how many times I just said the word "ticket" lmao* Pretty pricey if you ask me, especially for a seated ticket. We were sat in BLOCK N9 and were pretty much towards the back but we had a decent enough view and ya girl is visually impaired so I was happy to be able to see them well enough. This was my first time having a seated ticket for a concert so I wasn't too happy but I'm grateful that we even managed to get tickets at all. Apparently, the tickets sold out in just 1 minute during the General Sale which is just crazy!

Some fans took to Twitter to express their anger towards the situation with the ticket prices. One user (@utopiajkoo) wrote:

"Wtf are these prices for BLACKPINK tickets in London? Y'all, I love BP but you can count the amount of songs they have on both hands. Also, The SSE Arena in Wembley is not that big of a venue but prices are matching those of Wembley Stadium!"

And to be honest, they're right. I'm seeing BTS in Wembley Stadium on the 1st and 2nd of June and the prices are similar to that of BLACKPINK. BTS are also a K-pop group and Korean acts usually have pretty expensive tickets, due to the amount of money that goes into the production of the shows and such. But what sets BTS apart from BLACKPINK is that they currently have over 100 songs, whereas BLACKPINK only have 12 (or 13, including their collaboration with Dua Lipa). Also, The SSE Arena in Wembley has a capacity of 12,500 and Wembley Stadium can seat up to 90,000 people, so you'd think the tickets would be cheaper for a venue that holds fewer people, right? The numbers just really don't add up, so I can completely understand the frustration.

Another Twitter user (@goldjeonk) said:

"I will have finished University by the time BLACKPINK come to London but it really depends on ticket prices whether I go or not. I'm not paying over £100 just to see a concert full of covers."

[From looking at this user's Twitter account, she did actually attend the concert in the end so I'm very happy that she did and hope that she had an amazing time!]

On average, I'd say that artists usually perform around 20 songs per concert. Let's imagine that every song on the concert setlist is 5 minutes long. If you times the total amount of songs (20) by the length of each song (which in this example is 5 minutes), it would come to 100 minutes in total. So, excluding the breaks in-between songs and moments where the artist(s) talk and engage with the audience, would be 1 hour and 40 minutes. I'd say, based on the concerts that I've been to so far, ~2 hours is a perfect amount of time for a concert. Of course, this is all really dependent on the artist(s) though; newer artists, like

BLACKPINK, who only debuted in 2016 compared to artists like BTS who debuted in 2013, it's likely that the ones who have been around for longer would have more material to perform at their shows. Rosé, Lisa, Jisoo and Jennie had a solo section each where they sang and danced to songs by other artists in the industry. Personally, I wasn't too sure about seeing performances of songs that weren't by the artist(s) themselves but covers are just people's interpretations of a song so it was actually really nice to hear songs that I was actually familiar with, performed by artists that I respect a lot. But, of course, I could understand how this may have frustrated people as it seems that the group just needed something to make the concert a little longer.

So, what do I think about the ticket prices? They're not exactly ideal but think of it as a designer brand: Brands such as Gucci or Louis Vuitton or any other high-end brands, when you drop £5k on a bag, you're paying for the label, for the brand's name. BLACKPINK are a brand that are being marketed to us for, unfortunately, high prices. It's just life, I guess. If you can afford to spend the money then... invest!

QUEUING:

Okay so, I've been to a few concerts in my time and I've gotten pretty used to things being disorganised, especially with K-pop concerts in particular, but fans were pretty disappointed with the way queues to enter the venue were managed.

We arrived at Wembley at around 5:30, bearing in mind that we had seated tickets so we didn't expect it to be chaotic at all. On the website and on the ticket, the original plan was for the doors to open at 6pm. The show was due to begin at 8pm so we thought we had more than enough time to get into the venue, get sat down and chill. Nope. After grabbing some food, we headed over to The SSE Arena to see an absolute mess. The number of times we asked people if they knew which line was for what, you would be shocked. Most people replied with "I have no idea" so it was all very confusing. Like I said before, the venue isn't very big and there isn't much open space for people to line up properly. There were queues left, right and centre but the supposed "queue" for people who had seated tickets wasn't really a queue, it was more like a mob. There was a merch queue that was insanely long because they only had one merch truck outside. The queue for standing/GA was at the North-East entrance to the venue and those who were seated were pushed against each other in front of the main entrance to the building. It was, to put it nicely, an absolute shambles. Our tickets, although we were seated, said that our entrance was the "North-East Entrance" but that's where the people with General Admission tickets were lined up so do you see what I mean? There were hardly any stewards around and the stewards who were there seemed to have no idea what was going on. At around 6:40 pm when the doors were (later announced) supposed to open, I asked one of the stewards if he knew when we'd be allowed inside as the show was due to start at 8 pm but nobody had entered the building yet. Those with standing tickets hadn't even entered at this point and they were supposed to get in at 6:30 (10 minutes before everyone else). The steward, bless his soul because he really was trying to keep his shit together, couldn't give me an answer as he literally had no clue.

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, we were finally starting to be let into the venue in small groups. Long story short, we didn't get into the venue until roughly 8:25 pm. Fans were left wondering if the show had started already and I even said -multiple times- that if they had already started the show, it would have been unfair because it wasn't our fault that we were being let in so late. The stewards decided to open the door to the back entrance at literally the last minute so people ran to the other entrance to try and get in ASAP. I mean, I waited in the queue for BTS for about 12 hours so this wait of 3 hours was nothing compared to that but felt longer for some reason. My only consolation was that we had seated tickets so we were going to be able to sit down once we got inside. K-pop is still so new to the western world so I think that the companies that host K-pop concerts don't really know what to expect and don't quite anticipate just how hectic and chaotic the shows will be. Hopefully, The SSE Arena has learnt from this situation and will run a lot smoother when Monsta X perform there in a few months time.

CONCERT EXPERIENCE:

Eventually, when we got into the venue at 8:25 pm, we quickly rushed to the bathroom, found our seats and sat down for the show. The show officially began at around 8:40 pm, which was so lucky because we had literally just sat down. We were really glad to have not missed any part of the show. BLACKPINK came onto the stage after an intense countdown to their arrival on the stage. The girls began with their hit song "Ddu-du Ddu-du" which was a great song to start with and instantly got the crowd pumped. They followed this with "Forever Young", "Stay" and then"Whistle" before leaving us for a few moments (around 8:55 pm) with a compilation of fan videos. It was so cute, I love seeing how many people across the world of different ethnic and religious backgrounds showing their appreciation for the group. Truly beautiful.

After the first Ment came the solo performances by each member of the group. Rosé, the leader of the group, performed a mashup cover of "Let It Be" by The Beatles, "You & I" by Park Bom and "Only Look At Me" by Taeyang. Her performance was mesmerising; her voice is so angelic and soft (and Rosé is my bias, in case you were wondering). The performance was simple and beautiful; a piano, an emotional song and a stunning vocalist. I honestly loved it so much, she is so talented and it was amazing to see her perform something so raw and evocative; it genuinely brought tears to my eyes. After Rosé's performance, Lisa came onto the stage with her dance cover performance of "Take Me" by MISO and “Swalla" by Jason Derulo. Now, I knew Lisa was an amazing dancer but OH MY GOD, (excuse my french but) SHE REALLY IS THAT B****. As always, her performance was phenomenal. How does one move like that? I can't even move my fingers that fast, goddamn. Lisa really is such a talented individual, her passion for dance is very much apparent and I respect her so much for taking what she truly loves and turning it into something that we can all love with her. Bravo!

After Lisa's performance, Jisoo arrived on stage with her solo performance of "Clarity" by Zedd. I really love Jisoo's voice, she has such a distinctive sound and tone. Also, can we talk about her English pronunciation?! If you didn't know already, Rosé, Lisa and Jennie are fluent in English but Jisoo isn't, as of yet. However, she had really improved a lot recently and tries her best to communicate in English during interviews and concerts in English-speaking countries. She is so cute, I love her. Her performance was beautiful and this particular song is very well suited to her voice, in my opinion.

Finally, the time came for Jennie's highly-anticipated solo performance of, ironically, her very own song titled "SOLO" which was actually filmed here in London! Due to technical difficulties with the lift not coming up onto the stage, Jennie had to take the stairs so her performance was slightly delayed but made us fans even more excited! The performance was amazing, as expected. She was accompanied by back-up dancers who gave just as much of an amazing performance as Jennie did. Just amazing.

After the solo performances, the live band went into a jamming session for about 5 minutes which was pretty cool! I usually don't see a live band at concerts so I thought that this was a really nice touch! The musicians were amazing, the guy on the guitar absolutely killed it. He put my basic-guitarist self to shame lmao. Very inspiring though!

BLACKPINK then performed "Kill This Love", the title track from their most recent EP "Kill This Love". This song is one of my favourites; the vocals are sick, the choreography is amazing and it was so much better actually seeing it being performed live! They then followed this with "Don't Know What To Do", "Kiss & Make Up" (their collaboration with Dua Lipa, who I was really hoping was going to be there to perform it with them but it was great, nonetheless), "Really" and "See U Later".

At around 9:40pm was when we had the second Ment, which was an advertisement video of the girls racing each other in cars by the brand KIA, who are sponsoring BLACKPINK's World Tour. The advert was pretty cool and the skid marks from the racing ended up creating the letter "B" (for BLACKPINK, duh) which I thought was sick.

Later, the girls performed "Playing With Fire" from their first EP, "SQUARE UP", and "Kick It" from their most recent EP, "Kill This Love". I liked "Kick It" but wasn't the biggest fan. Lisa's rap always stood out to me but the song wasn't always my favourite. However, after seeing/hearing it being performed live, I love the song! That's what I love about concerts; it's so much better seeing things in real life and with your own eyes, as opposed to through a screen or someone else's perspective.

After that, the girls came onto the extended stage to talk with us, the audience, and express their gratitude towards us. They said that they were having loads of fun and didn't want the night to end and that there were 2 songs left after that (excluding the encore, of course). I wish I could understand the Korean language as I feel bad when people like Jisoo, who aren't fluent in English, are forced to speak English with us. I mean, it's not a bad thing and it definitely helps them practice but I feel like when non-English-speaking people say words and phrases that they've had to learn, it doesn't sound entirely genuine or sincere and as if they are being forced to say it. I'm not sure if they tell a translator what they would like to say and have that translated for them into English but I always think that they would want to say so much more but can't do so. I respect Jisoo so much for trying to learn English so that she can communicate better with BLACKPINK fans but I wish that she didn't have to speak English, just because we can't understand Korean. Does that make any sense? Sorry, it's 5am, I think I'm just rambling at this point.

After the third Ment, BLACKPINK performed "Boombayah", followed by "As If It's Your Last". Both songs are so fun and the girls performed really well. Can I just say, Rosé vocals, while she is dancing, are so beyond perfect – it's insane! I can't even lay down and hold a note, let alone perform intense choreography whilst singing an entire song! They are all really good performers but Rosé's vocals have stood out to me since I first discovered the group and she really delivered throughout the concert.

At around 10:10pm, the girls left the stage after performing "As If It's Your Last", which was funny because it was technically their last song of the night (before the encore, anyway). You heard it here first, folks: BLACKPINK are pun enthusiasts. For some strange reason, I completely forgot what the set-list for the concert was. The track "Hope Not" from their newest EP is my favourite song by the group. I really do just love ballads, they always pull me in more than any other type of song so I absolutely love this song. I don't know why but I was so scared that they weren't going to perform "Hope Not" and my heart broke into a million pieces because it was the song that I was looking forward to seeing the most. But, God really came through for me and they performed the "Ddu-du Ddu-du Remix" (which was absolutely hilarious because Jisoo was jumping and raising her bunny-hat ears to the beat of the song and running wildly around the stage; what a queen) and ended the concert with their (highly anticipated by me) performance of "Hope Not". It made it even more special for me as it's as though they saved the best song for last and I was in tears. I've been learning Korean and Hangeul recently and have really been focusing on my pronunciation of Korean words, especially when singing songs with Korean lyrics. I am proudly able to say that I confidently know all the lyrics to BTS' "The Truth Untold" which, of course, is another ballad and one of my favourite all-time BTS songs. I learnt -most of- the lyrics to BLACKPINK's "Hope Not" so I was screaming the words during the concert. The song gets me feeling really emotional and hearing them perform my favourite song of theirs, live, was so beyond amazing and I can't even fully express how I felt in that time. Just know that my voice was cracking from singing as I had a lump in my throat from crying. Just, wow. What a beautiful performance.

The concert officially ended at around 10:25pm. BLACKPINK's members, Rosé, Jennie, Lisa and Jisoo, said their farewells and made sure that they waved at every part of the arena. I loved that. They really made the effort, especially Lisa, to wave goodbye to everyone which, even though we were pretty much at the back of our section, made us feel included and that our presence at the concert was acknowledged and appreciated.

MERCHANDISE:

I'm still really upset about this. I had a look at the merch that was on offer but I wasn't too keen on anything (and not too keen on the prices, either). T-shirts were going for about £50 and although I love getting merch at concerts because they're basically souvenirs, I didn't feel comfortable buying something that I wasn't in love with and was pretty pricey. I liked the hoodies but they were £80 each or something crazy like that and I was NOT prepared to spend that much on a hoodie. I spent £71 on my BTS one and I thought even that was way above my budget but BTS are my ultimate faves so I was just about able to justify the purchase. Plus, my BTS one is really good quality and I literally lived in it during Winter so maybe the BLACKPINK one was of the same quality (or even better) but I'm sorry, I just couldn't fork out that much money. I originally wanted to get a Lightstick before we even entered the venue but the merch queue was far too long and I thought I'd be able to get one after the concert... I was wrong. The Lightsticks were completely sold out, even inside where they had actual merchandise stores. This made me so upset and I regret not getting to the venue earlier lol, please learn from my mistakes. As I was upset about not getting the Lightstick, I went to the bathroom and when I came out, my sister surprised me with a badge! Super cute. The badge was £15 which I'd say is extremely pricey, like even Supreme sell badges for way cheaper and Supreme are known scam-artists lmao. But, the badge is cute and at least I have a souvenir from the event so I'm grateful to have gotten something at least. Maybe I'll get a Lightstick the next time they come here!

I was really disappointed that there was only 1 merch truck outside the venue and the truck was tiny so the queue was moving pretty slow. I mean, I'm not sure if this is BLACKPINK or YG's fault and whether or not they had control over this (I'm not really sure how merchandise stuff works) but it seemed pointless, for those who were let into the venue extremely late, to have merch stuff inside because we were unable to check it out anyway without missing the beginning of the show. But there was a lot more merch on offer inside the actual venue and there was loads of stuff left even after the concert. Hopefully, if the girls ever come back to The SSE Arena in Wembley, they'll have more merch outside so that people have something to keep them occupied whilst waiting for doors to open. Actually, hopefully, we'll just be let in on time next time and not nearly 2 hours late lmao. No shade to anyone here, just stating facts.

Okay, so I think that pretty much sums up everything that I have to say about my experience with going to BLACKPINK's concert in The SSE Arena in Wembley, London. Although the schedule ran a bit behind, the concert was amazing and I'm so glad I managed to see BLACKPINK live! If they ever come back, which I'm sure they will, I hope that you manage to get tickets and are able to see them! Seeing them live and in the flesh made me fall in love with them and I'm so glad I didn't end up selling my ticket because I would've missed out on such a great opportunity! The girls are so talented, kind, beautiful (even more so in real life) and passionate about what they do! They care so much about their fanbase, BLINKS, and it really shows. If they do come back, I'll try my best to see them again!

If you've made it this far, bravo. I'm sorry about how much I tend to ramble, I really tried to keep this short, simple and relatively comprehendible but I always end up writing at unholy hours and I think I should stop doing that, lol.

Anyway, "See you later, maybe" ...on my next post?
That was supposed to be punny. I tried. But, seriously, see you later?

Thank you so much for reading! Keep scrolling for photos from the show.

Lots of love,

Jakira ♡