MANILA, Philippines — K-pop superstars Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa of Blackpink made their Filipino fans the “happiest,” after performing banger after banger during their sold-out Born Pink World Tour concert in the Philippines.
Ear-piercing cheers and glowing heart pink lights engulfed the Philippine Arena in Bulacan as one of the world’s biggest girl groups took the country’s stage on two consecutive nights, March 25 and 26, 2023, for the Asia leg of their extensive concert tour.
Clad in pastel-pink and regal stage outfits, Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa made a heart-thumping entrance, opening their setlist with the 2020 hit song How You Like That, followed by other early tracks Pretty Savage and Whistle.
After the foursome introduced themselves, Lisa and Rosé expressed their fascination over the Filipino crowd’s high energy and deafening screams, telling how it gave them goosebumps.
“I think this is one of the loudest crowds,” assessed main vocalist Rosé during Day 1 of the Born Pink Tour in Bulacan, which The Philippine STAR attended.
Seeing that their fans, also known as Blinks, were more than ready to have fun in the show, Blackpink got back on performing Don’t Know What To Do and Lovesick Girls, interacting with fans in between performances.
After an outfit change and an interlude by the live band, Blackpink returned to impress with their stage presence and killer choreography in Kill This Love, Crazy Over You, Playing With Fire, Tally and Pink Venom.
Filipino fans, meanwhile, continued to match the group’s energy — cheering, chanting and waving their hammer bong lightsticks. The members couldn’t help but thank the fandom for being hyped throughout the show.
“One thing I’m really loving about Manila is that we’re actually seeing people jump, dancing, and singing along to our songs,” observed main rapper Jennie.
“That makes us very happy. We really appreciate it,” she added.
“Exactly guys, thank you so much,” agreed Lisa.
Rosé even made attempts to silence the deafening crowd with Lisa’s iconic “Everyone silent” line from her solo track Money, but Filo Blinks just couldn’t seem to contain their excitement.
Probably the only time the Blinks had a moment of silence inside the arena with over 50,000 seating capacity, was when it was finally Lisa’s turn to shush the crowd with her performance of Money during her solo stage performance. She also made jaws drop with her pole-dancing skills during her performance of LALISA.
Jisoo, on the other hand, charmed the audience with her cover of Camila Cabello’s Liar, while Jennie dazzled fans with her unreleased song You and Me.
Rosé, on the other hand, rocked the indoor arena with stable vocals with a medley of solo songs Hard To Love and On The Ground.
The quartet kept the fans crazed with performances of recent releases off their Born Pink album, including Tally, Shut Down and Typa Girl, as well as DDU-DU DDU-DU and Forever Young from their first mini-album Square Up.
Moving onto their encore stage, Rosé and Jisoo uttered “Salamat po” (Thank you) a few times before the group held up the show’s official banner that read “The Happiest Filo Blinks with Blackpink.”
“Considering we haven’t been back for four whole years, I’m pretty sure the Philippines did not forget about us,” Rosé said of their Filipino fans’ loyalty and support.
Blackpink finished off the show asking Filo Blinks to get on their feet and sing along to their final song As If It’s Your Last.
As for the Filipino fans, they went the extra mile just to show their love and appreciation for the K-pop group.
During the girls’ solo parts, Blinks set a color ocean for each member, which coincidentally matched the Philippine flag’s colors (red for Jisoo, blue for Jennie, white for Rosé, and yellow for Lisa).
Blackpink was also left in awe by the crowd’s “unending” pink ocean wave with their hammer bong lightsticks, saying that Blinks could win a Guinness World Record for it.
Lisa, who celebrated her birthday on Monday, March 27, received a special treat from Blinks — a money cake — on the eve of her birthday.
Going all-out with their surprises for the Blackpink’s main dancer, an aircraft with the banner that read “PH Welcomes The Greatest Lalisa” flew over Philippine Arena on Day 1, while another one appeared on Day 2 carrying the sign “Happy Lalisa Day 0327 PH (heart emoji) U.”
Blackpink’s two-night show was a star-studded affair, with local celebrities such as Alexa Ilacad, Darren Espanto, Denise Laurel, Kyline Alcantara, twins Mavy and Cassy Legaspi, Jane de Leon and Janella Salvador, spotted fangirling and fanboying over the quartet.
But it was another level of fangirl experience for Andrea Brillantes. She caught the attention of Blackpink to help ask her boyfriend, basketball player Ricci Rivero, as her date to the upcoming Star Magic prom.
“Please go to prom with that girl,” said Rosé, as she read the actress’ banner: “I just wanna ask Ricci Rivero, will you go to prom with Andrea?”
The cager nodded “yes” to the actress’ “promposal” with the couple getting congratulated by Lisa afterwards.
Born Pink, which is the title of Blackpink’s latest studio album, marks the group’s second worldwide tour since debuting in 2016.
The last time they visited the country was for their In Your Area Tour at the Mall of Asia Arena in 2019. Blackpink’s back-to-back Born Pink shows in the country were presented by YG Entertainment and promoted by Live Nation Philippines.