Kim Ji-soo is a South Korean singer and actress. She made her debut in August 2016 as a member of the girl group Blackpink under YG Entertainment. She goes by the mononym Jisoo. She is known for being a member of Blackpink, which as of 2019 is the highest-charting female k-pop group. Jisoo is also well known as a model in advertisements in South Korea, including for LG. She has also appeared in a few television series. Jisoo is well known on social media in South Korea, with 18.8 million followers.
Early Life
Kim Ji-soo was born on January 3, 1995, in Gunpo, Gyeonggi, South Korea and has an older brother and sister. Jisoo attended high school at the School of Performing Arts Seoul. In 2011, she joined YG Entertainment as a trainee. Later she became a member of Blackpink. In 2015, she made her first appearance as an actress.
Impact and influence
In Gallup Korea’s annual music poll for 2018, Jisoo was ranked the tenth most trending idol in South Korea, receiving 4.8% of the votes. In April 2019, she has ranked the tenth most followed K-pop idol on Instagram, with 12.8 million followers. In 2019, Jisoo was also ranked as the sixth most popular female K-pop idol in a survey of soldiers doing mandatory military service in South Korea. In 2019 she was chosen as a part of the BoF 500, a “definitive professional index” of people shaping the $2.4 trillion fashion industry.
Jisoo was included in the ranking for the top ten celebrities and influencers leading the world of cosmetics for the first five months of 2020. Women’s Wear Daily, a fashion industry trade journal, revealed that Jisoo led the ranking in average engagement per post, followed by Rihanna and Kylie Jenner. She placed 7th in the overall ranking, with the fewest posts – just 12 in total. She was the only Asian to be included in the list.
In June 2020, Jisoo’s look in the teasers for Blackpink’s pre-release single, “How You Like That”, went viral within social media. Celebrities and influencers from South Korea, China, Thailand, and Vietnam, recreated her “two-bow hairstyle” and makeup, which she created herself. Jisoo’s “dot style”, a makeup idea created on her own, also trended on social media platforms including Instagram, followed with the hashtag #JisooMakeup to inspire the challenge among overseas fans.
Jisoo was ranked first on the girl group’s personal brand reputation, created by Korea Enterprise Research Institute to measure data analysis of brands followed with consumers online habit in significant impact on brand consumption and interest. Director of Korean Language Research Institute, Seong-sun Lim, mentioned the huge Korean Wave in the Global community has rapidly destroying the conventional Western cultural dominance. He also named Jisoo alongside Jungkook as World’s Beauty standard, took over the status of Olivia Hussey and James Dean.
In 2020, Dior’s increase in sales during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea was also attributed to its marketing campaign which utilised many Korean pop singers including Jisoo. Jisoo featured in the successful launch of Dior’s new Bobby bag, a campaign which featured other prominent influencers such as Chiara Ferragni and Kat Graham. Actress Liza Soberano also cited to get inspired a fashion look with Dior’s Oblique scarf after Jisoo’s featured in the Dior’s Fall/Winter 2020 campaign. As the showcased of Dior’s Spring/Summer 2021 collection, Jisoo became a hot topic on the digital show as Korea representative. Her influence on the show has earned the brand highest rated post with an average 33% MIV since last Fall 2020 show.
Personal life
In addition to her native Korean, she also learned to speak Japanese and Chinese.
Trivia
- Jennie said that she doesn’t speak English because she is embarrassed to speak it but she can understand it very well.
- She sleeps with her dog Dalgom so that she doesn’t get nightmares.
- She is close friends with Twice’s Nayeon, Red Velvet’s Seulgi, Gfriend’s Sowon and Wjsn’s Bona.
- IKON members said she has the brightest smile.
- She can play traditional drums and guitar.
- She said that she can’t use scissors properly.
- She was popular in school because of her beauty and kindness.
- She has a 4D personality.
- She said if she could date one of the Blackpink members, it would be Rosé because she could write songs about Jisoo and she can sing and play the guitar for her.
- She disliked art classes as she couldn’t pay attention in class.
- She said that she can balance anything on her head except for her dog Dalgom.
- She was an MC for “SBS Inkigayo’s Super Concert” along with Got7’s Jinyoung and BTS’s V.
- According to Jennie, Jisoo is the mood maker of the group.
- She said that her father often buys her weird things.
- She said that Jennie is her wife, Lisa is her right-hand person and Rosé is her left-hand person.
- She is afraid of rabbits and hamsters, due to experiences she had as a child because she was bitten by a hamster.
- She is was an MC for Inkigayo from February 5, 2017, till February 4, 2018, along with Got7’s Jinyoung and NCT’s Doyoung.
- She has a white Maltese dog named Dalgom.
- She enjoys creating nicknames. Most of the members’ nicknames have been said to be from her.
- She joined YG Entertainment as a trainee in July 2011.
- If Jisoo could be any Disney princess she would be Jasmine.
- She once guest-starred on the K-drama “The Producers”.
- She doesn’t cry in public as she wants to be strong for her members and fans, instead, she cries in private.
- Jisoo’s favourite song from Square Up is “Really”.
- She performs alongside Jennie Kim in the group Blackpink.
- Jisoo sang “I Have A Lover” for her YG audition, being the only one who sang a ballad and YG told her “You’re singing on key at least”.
- If Jisoo could change the fandom name, she would want to change it do sparkles in Korean, which is “banjjag”.
- Jisoo and her dad would watch “The Classic” often when she was younger.
- She has shot commercials and advertisements for Samsonite, Smart Uniform, and LG Stylus 2.
- Jisoo does most of the background vocals in Blackpink.
- She was supposed to debut as an actress but then got changed to an idol singer.
- Her mom found the Trevi bottle pretty, so she took it away from Jisoo and used it as a home decoration.
- She once left an autograph in a Hongdae restaurant and wrote her name as “Jjisyu”.
- She had a different signature during training days.
- Former 2NE1 member Dara once bought her fried chicken during Christmas, she left it on the desk in the practice room with a note saying “Do your best”.
- SNSD’S Taeyeon once sent her a signed album.
- She has a total of 9 piercings, 4 on her left ear and 5 on her right ear.
Personal Quotes
- I never dream to be anything not possible.
- Don’t rely on what others tell you to do, have a firm grasp and do something you like according to your own initiative.
- Life is not easy, there are so many crossroads… that’s our life.
- You cannot disobey the truth of life.
- I only say my opinion once and I stop talking about that issue. Because people learn by making their own mistakes…
- We live in a world where we have to work hard to get what we want.
- In fact, skin colour doesn’t really matter.
- Life is what we can’t expect, we can’t just live with probability.