It was one year ago, in February 2025, that BLACKPINK first teased a new tour, which eventually culminated in the milestone all-arena DEADLINE World Tour, which reached 16 cities and 33 concerts.
The trek wasn’t just an opportunity to dance along to BLACKPINK’s luminous discography, but also to celebrate the individual successes of members JISOO, JENNIE, ROSÉ and LISA, who all released major solo projects while group activities were on hold.
Now, one year later, the girls are back with the new EP also titled DEADLINE marking their first major music release since they hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with Born Pink in 2022. Similar to the rollout of their previous chart-topping LP, DEADLINE was previewed by an early summer single — the Diplo-assisted “JUMP,” which peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100 this past July — before fans received the larger project and a new single.
While “JUMP” combined Korean and English lyrics in true K-pop form, the four new tracks in DEADLINE are all in English, marking a new, globally-focused pop chapter for the group to shake the world stage more than ever. Further bolstering the impact are the creatives in the credits like their longtime producer TEDDY, go-to composers like IDO, Danny Chung, and Vince, as well as new collaborators like Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, KPop Demon Hunters‘ breakout songwriter and vocalist EJAE, and Top 40 hitmaker Cirkut.
It was just earlier this month that TEDDY, EJAE, and IDO all won the Grammy Award for best song written for visual media with “Golden” with that same sparkling synergy coming through across the EP’s different songs.
BLINKs, it’s time. Below is Billboard’s ranking of every song on BLACKPINK’s DEADLINE.
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“Me and my”
Image Credit: Rich Polk/Penske Media Written By: Lukasz Gottwald, Theron Thomas, Vaughn Oliver, Tobias Wincorn, Rocco Valdes, Jelli
Produced By: Dr. Luke, Vaughn Oliver, Tobias Wincorn
Empowerment and sticking together as a crew have been key concepts since BLACKPINK’s inception. With that in mind, “Me and my” doesn’t exactly offer anything particularly fresh to the group’s discography, subject-wise or musically. The girls riding effortlessly over the minimal hip-hop beat with vintage horn blasts is satisfying and JENNIE has some of the best lyrics rapping about “pretty privilege” and “When I call her bitch / that’s a compliment.”
It also feels like there’s not enough spotlight on JISOO and ROSÉ on this track — we wish the two BP vocalists had popped out with their own rap verses! That would have been a really special sonic surprise.
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“Champion”
Written By: Lukasz Gottwald, Theron Thomas, EJAE
Produced By: Dr. Luke
Co-written by the same woman who inspired millions of listeners by infusing her story into the multi-week Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 “Golden” — a.k.a. EJAE of KPop Demon Hunters fame — “Champion” brings a similarly empowering message.
The track opens with a driving synth-rock-pop production perfect for your workout playlist, but clumsily hops into a “We Will Rock You”–esque pounding percussion for the chorus. The track risks falling into generic pop territory until the bridge gets a dose of hyperpop and a repetitive “BLACKPINK!” chant, then closes with the final uplifting chorus.
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“Fxxxboy”
Written By: KUSH, Zikai, Courtlin Jabrae Edwards, Tommy “TB Hits” Brown, Vince
Produced By: TEDDY, KUSH, IDO
On Born Pink standout “Tally,” JENNIE spits, “Sometimes, I like to go play dirty / Just like all of the fuckboys do / That’s my choice and there’s no one I’m hurtin’ / And that’s not girly” in one of the three explicit tracks on the LP. But BLACKPINK once again flip the expectations and traditional gender roles. JISOO gets one of the best sections of the EP singing, “You burned the bridge, I’m on fire / You set the tone, now I’m louder / I don’t like you, I’m just bored / How’s it feel now I’m the f—boy.”
True to some of BLACKPINK’s most underrated mid-tempo B-sides like “You Never Know,” “Happiest Girl in the World” and early single “STAY,” the quartet musters up a certain kind of musical magic when they step into the brooding, emo headspace that’s so clearly highlighted by “Fxxxboy.” It’s the kind of cut that proves that even if big, bombastic K-pop beats are the group’s signature sound, they still shine when things are kept quiet and tender.
In our dream world, one day BLACKPINK performs an acoustic, MTV Unplugged-inspired show that lets the emotions and delivery in “Fxxxboy” really shine.
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“JUMP”
Image Credit: Courtesy Photo Written By: 24, Ape Drums, Boaz de Jong, Claudia Valentina, Jesse Bluu, JUMPA, Malachiii, TEDDY, Thomas Wesley Pentz, Zecca, Zikai
Produced By: 24, Boaz Van De Beatz, Diplo, TEDDY
Diplo said he jumped at the chance to “make a K-pop techno trance hardcore summer banger” for BLACKPINK’s 2025 comeback single, and the results did not disappoint. Delivering the forward-thinking innovation that we’ve come to expect from a big BLACKPINK single, “JUMP” sounded like nothing on the global-pop stage, blending hard-style EDM breakdowns with country-tinged pop melodies.
No doubt that unexpected-yet-addictive musical mix helped “JUMP” become BLACKPINK’s longest-running chart hit on both the Billboard Hot 100. The song also achieved the group’s longest chart run on the Pop Airplay chart and became the top-streamed K-pop song by a group in 2025 with both Apple Music and Amazon Music selecting the track as the No. 1 song on their year-end K-pop playlists.
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“GO”
Image Credit: YG Entertainment Written By: Chris Martin, Henry Walter, ROSÉ, Danny Chung, JISOO, JENNIE, LISA
Produced By: Cirkut, TEDDY
After 10 years together, “GO” remarkably marks the first time all four BLACKPINK members have written on one song together — and upon first listen, you can tell why everyone was moved to take part on this one.
From ROSÉ’s opening line declaring, “I’m on a mission/ I’m in control,” there is an emotional kind of urgency, leaving the listener on edge and awaiting the next instruction. With percolating synths and electronica backing ROSÉ and LISA’s angelic singing at the start, JENNIE takes a fiercer tone, announcing, “March to the beat of, beat of my drum / ‘Cause when I call you, you’re gonna come” and we’re fully locked in before JISOO boldly instructs, “You only move / When I say so.”
The beat drops and we’re dropped in a whirlpool of grinding, turbo-charged synths in one of BLACKPINK’s most innovative breakdowns ever. Like some of their best singles, the track doubles as their own anthem, with the group delivering the “BLACKPINK’ll make ya…GO” hook that will have listeners screaming along to by the song’s end.
While the song has an undeniable hard edge (best felt on JENNIE and LISA’s raps through the second verse, there is also an obvious softness in the track (ROSÉ’s melancholy on the bridge and LISA’s honeyed vocal tone on the first verse), which sums up the duality and range that BLACKPINK set to represent since first introducing their group name. “GO” is not only the best song on DEADLINE, but a truly representative track of BLACKPINK.
