"Boombayah" () is a song by South Korean

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

Blackpink Blackpink (, commonly stylized in all caps or as BLɅϽKPIИK) is a South Korean girl group formed by YG Entertainment, consisting of members Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, and Lisa. The group debuted in August 2016 with their single album ''Square ...

. It was released coupled with "

Whistle A whistle is an instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute type to a larg ...

" in the group's digital debut single album titled ''Square One'', on August 8, 2016, by

YG Entertainment YG Entertainment Inc. () is a South Korean multinational entertainment agency established in 1996 by Yang Hyun-suk. The company operates as a record label, talent agency, music production company, event management and concert production compa ...

. "Boombayah" peaked at number 7 in South Korea and topped the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

World Digital Song Sales The World Digital Song Sales chart (formerly World Digital Songs) is a weekly record chart compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published by '' Billboard'' magazine. Established in 2010—with the issue dated January 23—as one of 21 genre-specific s ...

chart in the first week of sales. On October 13, 2020, "Boombayah" became the first K-pop debut music video to surpass 1 billion views on YouTube.

Background and release

"Boombayah" was released on August 8, 2016, at 8 p.m. KST (UTC+09:00) as a digital single titled ''

Square One Square One may refer to: Film and TV * '' Square One: Michael Jackson'', a 2019 investigative documentary about the first allegations of child sexual abuse brought by the Chandler family *''Square One Television'', a children's television series ...

'', coupled with "

", through various digital music portals in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

Reception

The song received generally positive reviews from music critics. Jeff Benjamin of ''Billboard'' K-Town said that Blackpink "embraces the hip-hop sensibilities and club-ready sounds with which their seniors gained an international following", referring to their labelmates

Psy Park Jae-sang (, ; born December 31, 1977), known professionally as Psy (stylized in all caps as PSY) (; ; ), is a South Korean singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Psy is known domestically for his humorous videos and stage perf ...

Big Bang The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...

and

2NE1 2NE1 (, ) was a South Korean girl group formed by YG Entertainment, which was active between 2009 and 2016. The group was composed of four members: Bom, CL, Dara, and Minzy. Known for breaking typical stereotypes of K-pop, musical experiment ...

, with the song's "booming" and "exotic beats". Commercially, "Boombayah" debuted at number 7 on the South Korean

Gaon Digital Chart The Circle Digital Chart, previously known as the Gaon Digital Chart, is the music industry standard record chart ranking the 200 most popular singles in South Korea. It provides rankings on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis, which is based o ...

, selling 88,215 digital units and garnering 1,866,737 streams in the country. In the United States, "Boombayah" topped the ''Billboard''

chart for the week of August 27, 2016. The following week, "Whistle" descended to number 3 on the chart. The track reached 12.7 million streams in the United Kingdom as of April 2019, and 23.4 million streams as of September 2022, becoming the group's fifth most streamed song in the country.

Music video and promotion

The music video for "Boombayah" was directed by Seo Hyun-seung, who had previously directed the music videos for "

I Am the Best "I Am the Best" () is a song recorded by South Korean girl group 2NE1 for their self-titled second EP. It was written and produced entirely by the group's long-time collaborator Teddy Park and was released for digital download as the third ...

" by

and "

Fantastic Baby "Fantastic Baby" is a song recorded by South Korean boy band Big Bang. It was released as a single for digital download and streaming by YG Entertainment on February 29, 2012, in conjunction with the release of the band's fourth extended play ...

" by

. The video was released on Blackpink's official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel on August 8, 2016. As of December 2022, the video has surpassed 1.5 billion views. Blackpink promoted "Boombayah" at their debut stage on SBS's ''

Inkigayo ''Inkigayo'' ( ko, 인기가요; English title: ''The Music Trend'', previously ''Popular Song'') is a South Korean music program broadcast by SBS. It airs live every Sunday. The show features some of the latest and most popular artists who p ...

'' on August 14, 2016. They subsequently promoted the song for the two following weeks on ''Inkigayo'', and also performed "Boombayah" at the 26th

Seoul Music Awards The Seoul Music Awards (; SMA) is a major South Korean music awards show presented by the newspaper ''Sports Seoul''. The award winners are selected based on a combination of criteria, including music sales, popular votes, and expert judges' op ...

on January 19, 2017.

Usage in media

The song was featured in the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

television series ''

Wu Assassins ''Wu Assassins'' is an American supernatural action streaming television series, created by John Wirth and Tony Krantz that premiered on Netflix on August 8, 2019. The series stars Iko Uwais, Byron Mann, Lewis Tan, Lawrence Kao, Celia Au, Li ...

'' during a fight scene in "Drunken Watermelon", the first episode of the first season. The song is featured on the dance rhythm game ''

Just Dance 2022 ''Just Dance 2022'' is a 2021 dance rhythm game developed and published by Ubisoft. It was unveiled on June 12, 2021, during the Ubisoft Forward E3 web presentation as the thirteenth main installment of the series, and was released on November 4, ...

,'' which uses a modified version of the official choreography.

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from

Melon A melon is any of various plants of the family Cucurbitaceae with sweet, edible, and fleshy fruit. The word "melon" can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit. Botanically, a melon is a kind of berry, specifically a "pepo". The ...

. *

primary vocals *

Teddy Park Teddy Park (born Park Hong-jun on September 14, 1978), is a Korean–American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Park moved to the United States with his family as a young child. When he was 17 years old, P ...

composer, lyricist, arranger * Bekuh Boom composer, lyricist

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Monthly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{authority control Blackpink songs 2016 debut singles YG Entertainment singles 2016 songs Songs written by Teddy Park