They made fans at the iconic venue "Jump" to classics and solo successes.

On Friday night (Aug. 15), Wembley Stadium was bathed in pink light. If you’re one of the, conservatively, gazillion people who’ve watched Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters since its release, this could read like a bad omen. But this wasn’t the signaling of demons from the underworld getting their grips on unsuspecting K-pop stans, this was BLACKPINK making their long-awaited return to London with the Deadline World Tour, two years since their sold-out BST Hyde Park headline show in 2023. 

BLACKPINK

The Deadline World Tour, which wraps its Europe and U.S. leg with its stops at Wembley, came as something of a shock when it was announced in May. Back in 2023, BLACKPINK’s label, YG Entertainment, announced that each of the members — JENNIE, LISA, JISOO and ROSÉ — had ended their contract for individual work, but would still work together as BLACKPINK for group activities. Usually, that’s an unspoken agreement that life as a unit will wind down, and since then, the members have been going full throttle in their solo careers, each releasing albums and hitting iconic milestones (Rosé’s smash hit “APT,” featuring Bruno Mars, was the longest-running No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 in 2024, clocking up 12 weeks at the summit.)

A tour, then, seemed way off, especially since the group hadn’t released any music together since 2022’s Born Pink (they did eventually drop a digital single with the Euro banger-inspired, Diplo-produced “Jump” at the start of the U.S. leg of the tour). Still, we’re living in a post-Eras Tour world now, where a pop tour doesn’t have to necessarily coincide with an album release if you’ve got the back catalogue and ravenous stan appetite to fill a 70,000 capacity venue twice over. You’d be hard-pressed to find a BLACKPINK fan who doesn’t want to hear hits like “Kill This Love,” “BOOMBAYAH” and “DDU-DU DDU-DU,” even if they’ve been hearing them every tour since 2019. 

But with the inclusion of “Jump” and specific stages dedicated to each member’s latest solo work, there was just enough newness to the show to keep it fresh and exciting. Here are the best moments from BLACKPINK’s Deadline World Tour Wembley Stadium shows.

There is something of a flatness to the show’s beginning, purely because the group is working with songs they’ve been performing for more than five years at this point. But that dissipates when it comes to the members’ solo stages, which are dropped in pairs in either half of the show.

Each member performed songs from their most recent solo albums: JISOO sings “earthquake” and “Your Love” from her album AMORTAGE; LISA performs “Lifestyle,” “Thunder” and “Rockstar” from Alter Ego; JENNIE performs “Handlebars,” “with the IE (way up)” and “like JENNIE” from Ruby, and Rosé sings “dance all night”, “toxic till the end” and “APT” from rosie.

There’s a fire lit under them in these moments, as the BLACKPINK brand gives way to something more tailored. The great thing about K-pop is that its ecosystem allows artists to exist in a group and as solo artists simultaneously, and there’s something thrilling about seeing a new hunger come from performers who, at this point, are veterans on the stage. 

If a concert happens in 2025 without a random celebrity cameo, did it even really happen? In a landscape of Charli XCX’s “Apple” dances, Role Model’s Sallys and Sabrina Carpenter’s arrestees, it feels like every artist at the moment is trying to craft a viral moment — and boast at the coolness of their phone’s contact list.

For BLACKPINK, and specifically Rosé, this celeb cameo moment came in the shape of FKA Twigs. In a very Sweat Tour-esque opening to her solo stage, Rosé stalked the bowels of Wembley Stadium as she headed to the stage. Halfway through, she was joined by FKA Twigs as the pair jumped on a railcar, necking shots and eating scones as they’re transported from one side of the room to the other. Twigs then waved Rosé off as she emerged on the B-stage. It was kitschy and silly and fulfilled its purpose — because you really do leave thinking, ‘Wow, that is a cool contact in her phone.’

Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox

Sign Up
  • Billboard UK
  • genre k-pop
  • Music News
  • News
  • UK Live