Entertainment
Blackpink's Jennie Shines On Her Song For 'The Idol'
On “One of the Girls,” we get to hear her K-pop-trained voice in an entirely new context.
Amid the din of controversial takes and conflicted opinions people have about The Idol, there is, at least, one thing it seems most of us can agree on: The music on the show is... kind of good.
Of course, that was to be expected, with none other than The Weeknd himself at the helm of the show’s dark pop soundtrack. Alongside the drama and slimy sex scenes which seem to only get worse with every episode released each Sunday, the show manages to drop a couple of bangers along the way. This Friday, ahead of Episode 4, that finally included one of the soundtrack’s most anticipated songs: “One of the Girls,” the long-awaited duet between Blackpink’s Jennie and The Weeknd, with Lily-Rose Depp also thrown in the mix. And yes, she sounds just as great as you’d hope.
Because the episode’s not out, we don’t know the context of the song within the plot, but judging by its lyrics (and the increasing risqué meter of the show) a Dionysian three-way doesn’t seem that out of the question. In fact, the sensuous R&B track is, lyrically, Depp and Jennie asking to become “one of the girls” to The Weeknd.
Musically it all works really well. The synthy, serpentine beat, produced by Mike Dean, who makes a cameo in the episode, is decadently plush; the different tones of their voices weave harmoniously like a braid. The lyrics are extravagantly explicit — and while that hasn’t translated so well for The Idol on screen, it fares much better in the music, where there’s exponentially more allure in only hearing their voices. (Although Depp does get off one particularly egregious line fit for a romance novel: “I wanna take your light inside.”)
The track is an especially big moment for Jennie, on which we get to hear her K-pop-trained voice in an entirely new context. Instead of rapping and singing over bracing, multi-edged pop beats, on “One of the Girls,” she coos, murmurs, and reins her voice into an infinitely soft falsetto. She finds new textures to play with and paths for her voice to run down. The lyrics aren’t the most sexy she’s ever recited (“Lock me up and throw away the key/ He knows how to get the best out of me”), but this might be the most sensual, desperate, and emotive she’s ever sounded — and the biggest shame is that she only gets the song’s short intro and bridge to really try it out. But it’s enough to hear her potential: R&B Jennie is a star.
“One of the Girls” is Jennie’s first-ever release outside of the towering Blackpink universe which feels like an unprecedented achievement. Despite her small role on the show as Dyanne, background dancer and competitor to Depp’s Jocelyn, she’s more or less stolen every scene she’s in. Her dance routine from the pilot episode quickly became a trending challenge on TikTok, and clips of her acting constantly go viral. If she ever were to leave the world of K-pop, at least we know a solo career wouldn’t be too far out of the question.
