What Did It Take For Zico To Convince BLACKPINK’s Jennie To Work With Him?

Even among K-Pop idols themselves, winning a chance to work on a collaboration isn’t the easiest thing—so it seems. So, what did it take for Zico to convince BLACKPINK‘s Jennie to  feature on “SPOT!”?

In the latest episode of BIGBANG Daesung‘s YouTube show, “Zipdaesung,” after talking about becoming “the one who founded the #challenge culture” in K-Pop land, Zico revealed the great lengths he went to land the collaboration with Jennie.

Zico explained that he approached it extra-prepared. He knew that it “needs to be fresh,” and—right in time—he read about Jennie’s “newfound independence” from YG Entertainment which intrigued him.

Daesung: How did you end up working on a song with Jennie?

Zico: Before making “SPOT!”, I thought, “This has to be something fresh. If I’m coming back, I need to come back with something fresh.” And I figured it makes sense to do a fun collaboration. Then I saw articles about Jennie going independent, so I reached out to her and said, “I’d like to work on something with you…”

To make sure that Jennie had a full plate of options to choose from, he sent over 12 “sketches” of tracks and 6 complete tracks, as well as 8 different “challenge” versions.

Zico: “…but only if you like what I come up with.” I said, “I’ll prepare everything and then play them for you to decide.”

Daesung: Wow.

Zico: So I sketched about 12 tracks and fully completed 6. When we had the meeting, I played the tracks for her, and she said, “OK, let’s do it.” So… It worked out well and the result was great. For the challenge, too, I actually created 8 different versions to send her.

Combining Zico’s hard work and Jennie’s openness to hearing him out, “SPOT!” was born. Now sitting at 108,202,690 views and counting, “SPOT!” has become a timeless favorite for K-Pop fans!