Entertainment trade magazine Variety has chosen K-pop girl group BLACKPINK as Group of the Year.
Variety announced the award recipients that will be featured in its Hitmakers issue that will come out on Dec. 2. In addition, it will hold a Hitmakers program featuring the recipients on Dec. 3 (Dec. 4 in the Philippines) that will be streamed on the magazine’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube accounts.
Harry Styles is this year’s recipient of the Hitmaker of the Year award. Other awardees are BLACKPINK for Group of the Year, J Balvin for Collaborator of the Year, Benee, Jenna Andrews and Josh Fountain for Isolation Salvation Song of the Year, and Charli XCX and A. G. Cook for Innovator of the Year.
Also receiving awards are Roddy Ricch for Breakthrough Artist of the Year,Lewis Capaldi for Songwriter of the Year, Interscope Geffen A&M for Label of the Year, Maren Morris for Crossover Artist of the Year, Mustard for Producer of the Year, Ron Perry for Executive of the Year and Wassim “Sal” Slaiby for Manager of the Year, according to Variety.
Recently, BLACKPINK became a “million-seller” when their first studio album “The Album” sold more than one million copies.
Korea’s Gaon Music Chart revealed that “The Album” sold 1.07 million copies based on the monthly album chart for October. The album debuted at No. 2 on Billboard 200 and UK”s Official Albums Chart.
YG Entertainment said this was the first time that a K-pop girl group has achieved “million-seller” status.
BLACKPINK topped Bloomberg’s Pop Star Power Rankings for November based on four criteria. The group ranked first on YouTube views with one billion views, second on Spotify streams and ninth on album sales.
The rankings are based on four-week album sales, four-week digital song streams on Spotify, 30-day total interactions on Instagram and four-week YouTube views.