Blackpink fans anxiously await the band’s fate as a slow drip of news on their contract renewal gives few clues.
Blackpink’s contract with YG Entertainment expired in August and their followers have been speculating since.
Fresh reports on Korean media regarding the contract negotiations have fuelled a guessing game.
The band’s four members – Jisoo, Lisa, Jennie and Rosé – have been silent about their contract status.
The Munhwa Ilbo newspaper reported on Monday that Blackpink members had agreed to maintain group activities under YG Entertainment. However, the report added that the group would not renew their exclusive contracts.
This means that the four are free to pursue solo endeavours and will reunite as Blackpink only when their schedules call for it, the report said.
News agency Yonhap, quoting anonymous sources, reported that Blackpink was in the final stages of negotiating a group contract.
However, the renewal of their individual management contracts “remains unclear”, Yonhap said.
YG Entertainment, which has managed Blackpink since the group was formed in 2016, said it would make an announcement once negotiations are finished.
On social media, fans pleaded with their idols to stay together.
“Blackpink please don’t disband,” one fan wrote.
“I’m very sad… because Blackpink will disband,” one fan commented under the most recent post on the group’s official Instagram page.
Blackpink has grown to be the biggest K-pop girl group on the planet and its individual members are celebrities in their own right.
Their contract expired as their male counterparts, BTS, are taking a break as some members are on mandatory military service.
