BLACKPINK And Mickey Guyton Named In TIME’s People Of The Year 2022
The K-pop girl group and the rising country star both spoke to the publication about their last 12 months and their approach to their art
BLACKPINK and Mickey Guyton have been honored by TIME, both securing titles in its People Of The Year 2022 list.
The K-pop girl group, who released their second album BORN PINK in September, were named the 2022 Entertainer Of The Year by the publication.
“The foursome released its highly anticipated second studio album, Born Pink, in September, which notched a record as the best-selling album by a Korean girl group, with over 2 million album sales,” TIME’s Raisa Bruner said.
“It continues to dominate on YouTube, where BLACKPINK is the biggest musical act with over 83 million subscribers. You don’t accomplish all that by being like other pop groups. Most have a limited life span: they age out, flame out, or see one member rise above. But BLACKPINK has managed to become the biggest girl group in the world precisely by allowing its members to be solo stars in their own right. The group may be bigger than the sum of its parts, but each of its parts is bigger than most other pop groups’ combined efforts.”
Speaking to the magazine, rapper Jennie discussed the high expectations the group faces in the K-pop industry. “If we consider this in the business way, we wouldn’t be able to do this,” she said. “We do it out of our heart.”
Guyton, meanwhile, was named 2022’s Breakthrough Artist Of The Year, spurred on by her breaking down barriers for Black artists in the country scene.
“This year, the country singer Mickey Guyton represented America on its biggest stages, belting out the national anthem at the Super Bowl and hosting PBS’s July 4 celebration from the Capitol Lawn,” TIME’s Andrew Chow wrote. “She became the first Black nominee for Best Country Album at the Grammys in the award’s history.”
In an interview, Guyton recalled singing the national anthem at the Super Bowl, saying: “It was the most nervous I’ve ever been. I felt like I was about to give birth for the first time or walk down the aisle and get married to the wrong guy. To be honest, it’s really hard right now with what’s going on in this country. I wanted to be proud of singing the national anthem. So if you had noticed the choir, it was really important to show what I saw America as. We chose someone with a disability, a Black trans woman, an Asian man.”
The TIME Person Of The Year 2022 will be revealed on Wednesday (December 7).
Last week (December 1), BLACKPINK began teasing the release of B.P.M., a new behind-the-scenes YouTube series that will chronicle the making of BORN PINK. The first episode was released on Friday (December 2) and showed a glimpse of the filming for their “Pink Venom” music video.
