BLACKPINK’s Jennie Reaches Highest Ranking in Rolling Stone’s K-Pop History with Solo Album “Ruby”

BLACKPINK member Jennie established a new milestone in K-Pop history with her first full-length solo album, “Ruby.” The album ranked 29th on Rolling Stone’s “The 100 Best Albums of 2025,” securing the highest position ever achieved by a K-Pop artist on that list. In its review of the rankings, Rolling Stone praised “Ruby” by stating, “‘Ruby’ relies heavily on the ideas that dominated R&B-inspired pop in the 2000s and 2010s while modernizing them in sometimes interesting ways. Jennie demonstrates an amazing ability to dominate sweet pop R&B.” Jennie’s global influence is also evident across various charts. On Spotify’s 2025 year-end list, “Ruby” was the only K-Pop solo artist to make it onto “Best Pop Albums of 2025.” Its title track, “like JENNIE,” reached 43rd on Spotify’s list of the world’s most streamed songs of 2025, marking the highest ranking among K-Pop female artists released that year. On Apple Music’s year-end rankings, “like JENNIE” also placed 62nd on “2025 Top 100: Global,” making it the first K-Pop solo artist to appear on that chart. Jennie was named No. 1 in Forbes Korea’s “Korean Idols of the Year 2025” list and became the only Korean artist to participate in Spotify’s “Spotify Wrapped 2025” campaign. During the announcement of the 2025 Asian Pop Music Awards (APMA) nominees, Jennie received nominations in 9 categories, becoming the artist with the most nominations that year. This reflects the impact of Jennie’s solo activities and BLACKPINK’s ongoing global influence. Following Jennie, G-Dragon and Lay Zhang each had 8 nominations, while Jackson Wang received 7 nominations. The other BLACKPINK members also showed strong presence at the APMA awards. Rosé was nominated in 6 categories, Jisoo in 5 categories, Lisa in 4 categories, and BLACKPINK as a group was also included on the nominee list. The group has a history of winning album awards at the APMA with “The Album” in 2020 and “Born Pink” in 2022, and each member has won solo awards at the APMA in 2024. Jennie’s “Ruby” album consists of 15 tracks in total, with Jennie personally handling the album production to reflect her identity and musical possibilities. Containing songs of various genres including the title track “like JENNIE,” “Ruby” is regarded as a work that demonstrates Jennie’s musical diversity as a solo artist, and it continues to set new records on global charts.