Throwback: BLACKPINK + Ariana
A viral throwback clip resurfaced this week showing BLACKPINK and Ariana Grande performing together seven years ago, and nostalgia drove another wave of views. The post is a reminder that archival festival moments keep resurfacing as content fodder and can reignite interest in both back catalogues and current projects. For listeners it’s a cheap way to rediscover older collaborations that often re-enter playlists when they trend on social. (x.com)
The clip blowing up again comes from April 2019, when BLACKPINK played Coachella on Friday and Ariana Grande headlined Sunday of the festival’s second weekend in Indio, California. Coachella 2019 ran April 12 to 14 and April 19 to 21, with Grande listed as one of the three headliners. (wikipedia.org) What people are passing around now is not a formal duet single or a planned joint stage credit. It traces back to the moment BLACKPINK members were seen at Grande’s set and then photographed with her backstage during weekend two. (billboard.com, soompi.com) That timing mattered because BLACKPINK had just made their Coachella debut on April 12, 2019, performing songs including “Kill This Love,” “Boombayah,” and “Ddu-Du Ddu-Du.” Setlist records from that first weekend show a 13-song set, with Jennie also performing “Solo.” (setlist.fm, billboard.com) Ariana Grande was closing the same festival two days later, on April 21, 2019, after a run that had already made “Arichella” a fan phrase online. Coverage at the time centered on her headline slot and the backstage photo with Lisa, Rosé, and Jennie after that set. (wikipedia.org, papermag.com, allkpop.com) The resurfaced post hits a nerve because 2019 now sits in a very specific pop window: BLACKPINK were still early in their United States festival rise, and Grande was in her “Thank U, Next” era, headlining one of the biggest festivals in America. Seeing those timelines overlap feels bigger in hindsight than it did in real time. (billboard.com, wikipedia.org) There was already fan crossover before Coachella. Billboard’s 2019 timeline notes Rosé covering Grande’s “7 Rings,” and the festival meeting landed as payoff for months of online overlap rather than a random celebrity photo. (billboard.com) The reason an old clip can move again seven years later is simple: the footage is short, recognizable, and tied to names that still pull huge global audiences in 2026. BLACKPINK’s official YouTube channel still draws viewers to Coachella-era performance uploads, including a “Kill This Love” live clip from 2019 with tens of millions of views. (youtube.com, youtube.com) That is why these throwbacks keep reappearing every festival season. One backstage image from April 22, 2019 can suddenly send people back to BLACKPINK’s first Coachella set, Ariana Grande’s 2019 headline run, and a pop moment that was never really finished because fans kept treating it like the collaboration that almost happened. (soompi.com, papermag.com, billboard.com)
