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

He went above and beyond to land his chance.

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!”?

BLACKPINK’s Jennie | @jennierubyjane/Instagram

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 on “Zipdaesung” | @zip____ds/Instagram

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!