BLACKPINK fans were sent into a frenzy on Tuesday morning (July 1) after the K-pop girl group unveiled a new interactive website that appears to set up their upcoming era. In a tweet on Monday (June 30), the group wrote, “Welcome to PINK AREA,” along with a shot of a cartoonish map of Seoul featuring a series of popular tourist spots including Goyang Sports complex, Banpo Bridge, Namsan Seoul Tower and Sevit Island, all marked as PINK AREA, along with the dates July 4-6.
Two of the sites were marked with an all-caps sign that read DO NOT JUMP, with the “Not” crossed out in pink spray paint over the YG building and the Shinsegae department store; at press time it was unclear what the message referred to. The site — whose name picks up on the group’s iconic “BLACKPINK in your area” catchphrase — was slow to load at press time, due to what some Korean news outlets reported was a flood of traffic.
The map followed up on last week’s first full group picture together in months, in a since-expired Instagram Stories post that showed ROSÉ, LISA, JENNIE and JISOO holding their hands together to create the shape of a four-leaf clover, accompanied by a clover emoji. BLINKS shared the image on their socials in an attempt to decode its meaning, with many speculating that it was a hint about the title of an upcoming song or project.
Back in May, LISA revealed that the group had already been in the studio working on new songs. The quartet’s most recent album was 2022’s sophomore LP Born Pink, which was followed by solo albums and a series of singles from all the members.
In the meantime, BLACKPINK are gearing up to launch their Deadline world tour, which is slated to kick off at South Korea’s Goyang Stadium with shows on Saturday (July 5) and Sunday (July 6), leading to further speculation that the sites on the interactive map are clues about events timed to coincide with the tour kick-off.
After this weekend’s hometown show, the quartet will hop to North America for show in Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto and New York. The group will then play stadiums across Europe in August and return for a run of Asian dates in October and November, winding down on Nov. 30 with the second of two shows at Singapore National Stadium.
Check out the PINK AREA tease below.
