Dear Gossips,

K-pop is how we’re starting the day today. First… she’s been teasing a new single for a few days now but yesterday, Lisa gave us the date: the new single, “Rockstar”, is dropping on June 27.

The comeback was made obvious earlier this month when she launched her TikTok and set a Guinness record in the process – a million followers in two hours, which should tell you how f-cking popular she is.

Lisa signed with RCA a couple of months ago for her solo work outside of BLACKPINK and the deal will allow her to retain ownership of her masters. Which is significant because her previous singles were super successful – “Money” is the first K-pop solo hit to surpass a billion streams on Spotify. And there are a lot of fans who believe that Lisa’s previous solo work could have been better managed and promoted. So there’s a lot of untapped potential that’s about to be released.

But we’ll be hearing a lot more from Lisa in addition to her music. In addition to working on new music this year, she’s also been filming… oh just a tiny little show called The White Lotus. Season three is set in Thailand, Lisa’s home country, and she’s one of the cast members. Footage of her hanging out at what was reportedly the wrap party went viral last week. Promoting the series with Lisa front and centre next year when it releases will be a no-brainer.

For now, though, it’ll be interesting to see the reaction to “Rockstar” when it drops next week.

And then there’s Stray Kids. A new EP is coming in July called ATE. And yesterday the group released a trailer for the mini-album asking “Who ATE the luck?”, opening with Felix and his impossibly pretty face and Australian accent. All their pretty faces, actually.

I already love the playful, goofy, irreverent energy of this video.

You know how everyone is thirsty for views and social media traffic these days? Well, at the Met Gala back in May, Stray Kids actually generated the most internet activity when they all showed up together. What ended up being controversial, however, is that a lot of the media and the photographers in particular didn’t know who they were and were rude to them on the carpet. Because they still don’t get it. So many people still don’t get it.

Which is why I feel like I have to keep justifying my coverage of Eastern stars with facts and figures, which I hate because when I do a post about, I dunno, Paul Mescal or whatever, I don’t need to come in with the stats, even though, globally, I guarantee you the audience for Lisa and Stray Kids is a big f-cking deal. That said, it’s also about diversity within the media, right? This is why I take it very seriously, in all my media positions, online and in television, that I might be one of the few voices to be pitching these stories. Not asking for flowers for this, in fact the whole point is for us to get to a place where I might not be the only one. But it’s still the reality right now, so we do what we can. And, sometimes, it’s still not enough.

But let’s not bring down the mood when there’s so much to look forward to: Lisa and Stray Kids are coming.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

BLACKPINK Gossip

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