Jennie on New Album ‘Ruby,’ Dua Lipa, Record Label & More

When Jennie posted the long-awaited trailer announcing her debut solo album, Ruby, she was on a plane heading to London. “It’s hard for me to stay longer than a week in one city,” she confesses — while in the car en route to yet another flight (this time from Los Angeles back home to Seoul).

Jennie chose the commanding “Zen” to soundtrack the album’s January trailer, particularly highlighting the lyric “In the dark I grew,” a sentiment that echoes throughout Ruby. “To me, that song is the core of this album,” she says. “So it only felt right to begin this journey with it.”

The album, which is entirely in English and arrived March 7, was preceded by singles “Mantra”; “Love Hangover,” with Dominic Fike; and “ExtraL,” with Doechii; and its other features — including genre-spanning artists such as Dua Lipa, Childish Gambino and Kali Uchis — further illustrate Jennie’s wide-ranging taste and global appeal. As a jet-setting artist with a devoted worldwide fan base firmly in place thanks to her role in history-making K-pop act Blackpink, Jennie is determined to build upon that on her own. (She released Ruby on her independent label, OddAtelier, in partnership with Columbia.) “It feels like my power as a superhero,” Billboard‘s 2025 Women in Music Global Force says. “It drives me to put more great things out there and work hard.”

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You already have a global fan base thanks to Blackpink. How did that benefit you on your solo journey?

If anything, I’m reintroducing myself to the world with this album. I’m throwing myself out there as if this was the very first time — that’s the commitment that I told myself. So I don’t think it changes so much for me.

You’ve adopted the middle name of Ruby Jane. How did that inspire the album title?

I was contemplating until the very end. I didn’t name [the album] Ruby because it’s a part of my name. To me, Ruby speaks to me as the curtain call of a play, where I’m opening this new chapter of… I don’t want to say new life; life is life, but a different stage in my life and I’m welcoming everyone in. I don’t necessarily see Jennie, Ruby, Jane as three different alter egos of mine. That’s just who I am, all in one.

You released a lyric breakdown of “Love Hangover” in Korean. Why was that important for you to do?

I love the fact that I’m Korean, so I’m just showing my appreciation and giving back the love that [my Korean fans] give me, and I wanted them to understand my music and myself better since this is an all-English album. And I know that they want to be more interactive with me in both languages.

What lyrics on Ruby best sum up how this journey has felt for you?

There’s a song that speaks to me in that sense called “Starlight,” and I think it’s a beautifully written song about how I felt for all this time. It’s a personal song.

Dua Lipa is featured on “Handlebars.” Tell me about that friendship.

I’ve known Dua for a very long time now. I went to her first show in Korea. We’re already good friends, [but] it was our first time doing a song together. That itself was a new experience for us to see each other in a different way, and we just had a great time.

Between you two, who do you think travels more?

Honestly, we both work hard.

Behind the scenes, you have a strong team of women helping run your label. Why was that important to you?

I consider it to be important to work with people that you share good energy with, and I naturally started to gravitate toward empowering women. I’m still working hard to become one of those women that I look up to myself.

This story appears in the March 22, 2025, issue of Billboard.