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Blackpink's new single with mystery artist: Release date, concept, how to stream and all you need to know

The record-breaking girl group are gearing up to shatter even more numbers with their new song, but fans can't help but wonder who their mystery feature is

Blackpink has finally dropped the release date for their upcoming as-of-yet untitled August single. The group's agency, YG Entertainment, previously shared a teaser poster for the single which featured a snippet of the cover art for the single, showing the four members in what appears to be a retro summer concept. No other details were shared other than the release being some time in August. But now that some new details have emerged, it's time to look at everything we know about the single thus far.

When

Blackpink's upcoming single will be released on Friday, August 28.

What to expect

The group's previous release was the single 'How You Like That', which dropped on June 26. It served as the first pre-release single from the group's upcoming debut Korean-language album, 'Blackpink: The Album', which is due October 2 this year. Teddy, one of YG's top songwriters and producers, worked on the track in collaboration with Danny Chung, R. Tee, and 24, and the dynamic combo created a chart-topping, record-breaking single. The Seo Hyun-seung-directed music video broke the records for the most-watched premiere on YouTube, the most views within 24 hours for a music video (pulling in over 85 million views within its first day), and the fastest to 100 million and 200 million views. The song also performed well commercially, charting in 25 countries and set five Guinness World Records in total.

Concept

Blackpink's second pre-release single has been kept under wraps, with nothing more than the teaser poster to get fans talking. But it is pretty evident they're going for a retro summer look and sound, seeing as the girls have shed their fierce, black outfits and makeup from the 'How You Like That' concept photos in favor of summery dresses, more natural hair colors and lighter makeup. Additionally, we see Jisoo with a sunflower, Jennie with a cupcake and Lisa with a cherry, all iconic symbols for a hot summer. Blackpink's original concept allowed for a duality, with black representing the darker themed tracks and pink representing a much more fresh, girly concept. It appears their two pre-release singles have been designed to highlight this duality.

The Blink fandom did notice one interesting thing about the single: choreographer Kyle Hanagami, who has previously worked on several of Blackpink's songs including 'Ddu-Du Ddu-Du', 'Kill This Love', and most recently, 'How You Like That', shared the poster for the upcoming single to his Instagram story. Given he is largely inactive on his social media except when it comes to projects he is involved in, it's quite likely he worked with Blackpink for the new single as well, meaning we can expect excellent choreography from the group once more.

Featuring artist

The mystery artist has been kept a well-guarded secret thus far, so protected that not even the usually tech-savvy and hawk-eyed Blinks have been able to uncover Blackpink's secret. But they have managed to narrow their speculations down to a few artists. The first candidate is Ariana Grande. The reason for this is simple: it's what the fans want, with several already making their own fan-edited posters for the single featuring Grande.

Grande has been making some inroads into the K-pop industry, including getting pally with BTS while the two were practicing for their respective Grammy appearances. It's also no surprise that Grande is immensely popular in South Korea, even among idols, who adore her just as much for her persona as for her music. Both Grande and Blackpink's fandoms have all but decided she is their next feature, coining the name 'AriPink' to represent their collaboration. And their hopes aren't based on fiction either. Grande and Blackpink have recently worked with the same producer, Tommy Brown, who shared in June that both acts were ready to put out some "incredible" music. Fan speculation has also kicked into overdrive after they noticed that Grande and Victoria Monet liking Instagram pictures from Blackpink members, as well as YG Entertainment following Scooter Braun's SB Projects on Twitter.

Apart from Grande, fans also began speculating that Selena Gomez would be the featuring artist. While this collaboration doesn't stem from connections made by fans, it does come from a report put out by My Daily. YG Entertainment neither confirmed nor denied the theory when pressed and instead, asked fans to patiently await the reveal. Fans weren't too happy either way, because while some weren't fond of Gomez herself, mostly, they were just disappointed it wasn't Grande.

In addition to Grande and Gomez, fans also briefly speculated that the collaboration would be with Taylor Swift, owing to the singer having dropped an entire album without warning, leading fans to speculate she had other projects secretly in the works. Additionally, she shares a connection with Blackpink via Ryan Tedder. This might be quite unlikely, however, given Swift's recent shift in musical direction that seems quite at odds with what Blackpink is likely to put out. But, as they say, never say never.

How to stream

The new single from Blackpink can be pre-saved now across all digital streaming platforms. Stay tuned to the official YouTube channel for Blackpink to catch new releases as they drop.