SamaritanMag Spotlights Bud Light Dreams Music Festival

In 2011, a teenager from Gunpo, a city 30 km from Seoul, crossed the South Korean capital to audition at YG Entertainment. The 16-year-old faced a line of hundreds of candidates, performed for the judges, and left the building without knowing the result of the audition that would change her life forever. Shortly after, Jisoo joined the agency’s exclusive trainee program. She went through countless hours of rehearsals and music, singing and dance classes over five years before debuting in BLACKPINK alongside three other girls — and the rest is history with a capital H. The group was one of the driving forces behind K-pop’s surge in global popularity over the following decade.