LOS ANGELES — After making history at Coachella and announcing an upcoming show at Dodger Stadium, Blackpink continued its California takeover this week by appearing on James Corden's latest edition of "Carpool Karaoke."
While driving through the streets of Los Angeles, K-pop idols Rosé, Jennie, Lisa and Jisoo reflected on their early careers and jammed to hit songs by famous girl groups, including TLC, the Spice Girls and, of course, Blackpink.
After belting "Pink Venom" — the lead single of their sophomore album, "Born Pink," and their opening number at Coachella — the women of Blackpink described to Corden the intensive training they underwent to become K-pop stars. During the training program, the musicians explained, they took singing, dancing and language classes — starting at 11 a.m. and running as late as 2 a.m. the next day.
"Even on weekends," Rosé said. "We would get one day off every fortnight on a Sunday."
Rosé added that when she left her home country of Australia at 16 to start K-pop training in South Korea, her childhood friends thought it "was so weird" and wondered where she was going.
"I couldn't explain," she said. "I'm like, 'Just wait and see. I will show you.'"
"Whoa! 'I will show you!'" the other band members echoed in the backseat.
Asked if they ever got "homesick at points" during the training process, Jennie said that the "competition was so intense," the performers didn't have much opportunity to focus on anything else.
"We kind of forget that we're missing some part of our lives," she continued. "Because there's different tests that we do, different videos that we have to shoot, and it keeps coming every day, every week. We weren't really looking back to our homes or anything. We were just like, 'Let's survive this.'"
During the "Late Late Show" segment, the quartet channeled two of its favorite girl groups, TLC and the Spice Girls, while rocking out to "No Scrubs" and "Wannabe." Rounding out the band's "Carpool Karaoke" set list were the popular Blackpink tracks "Ddu-Du Ddu-Du" and "How You Like That."
"This was so much fun," Rosé said as Corden pulled the car back onto the CBS lot. "We don't wanna leave."
Blackpink's "Carpool Karaoke" installment aired days after the quartet became the first K-pop act and girl group to headline the Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival in Indio. The group is scheduled to return for Weekend 2 of the festival on Saturday.
On Monday, Blackpink expanded the North American leg of its Born Pink tour to include concerts at San Francisco's Oracle Park and Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium.
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