BLACKPINK's Lisa Arrives With PRESS PLAY After a #69 Hot 100 Career High

BLACKPINK's Lisa released her new solo mini album PRESS PLAY on the 23rd, led by a title track named after film director Quentin Tarantino. The video casts her in an action role: she fights her way through a spectacular hotel journey to hand him a letter.

The six-track project includes Tarantino, SaWaDiKa, V12, Cobra, Cut U Off and Sweat. SaWaDiKa arrived as a pre-release single last month.

A title track built on film references

Tarantino is about a fearless, free-spirited attitude and a surplus of confidence. The song also stands out for working in the titles of Tarantino's films, including Kill Bill and Death Proof. The video picks up that cinematic thread by putting Lisa in the middle of the action herself, which suits a concept built around a director known for genre-heavy set pieces.

Listening party in Seongsu

On the 22nd, a day before release, Lisa held a listening party for Korean fans in Seoul's Seongsu-dong, in Seongdong District. The venue was styled as a vintage Hollywood theater, and it was the first place the full album was played publicly. Fans responded warmly to the reveal.

Momentum from SaWaDiKa and the VMAs

The lead-in was strong. The SaWaDiKa video, shot in Lisa's hometown of Bangkok, passed 70 million YouTube views within 24 hours of release. The song then entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 69, the highest debut of her solo career.

Lisa also became the first Asian solo artist to win Best Pop at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards, held on the 27th of last month (local time) at Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. She won for Dream, a song released last year. Against that backdrop, PRESS PLAY arrives with real wind behind it, and the Tarantino concept looks like a confident way to use it.