Jennie from Blackpink and Stray Kids: Korean artists invite themselves to the Met Gala 2024

Jenny, one of four members of South Korean girl group Blackpink, attended the Met Gala for the second time; a first for a K-pop artist. While she came in an archive Chanel outfit last year, she presented herself, for the 2024 edition, in a sumptuous custom-made royal blue dress by Pieter Mulier for Alaïa. The latter required more than two hundred hours of work and thirteen meters of fabric, and allowed the twenty-eight-year-old singer to appear among the best dressed personalities at the Met Gala according to the Rolling Stone.

Jennie at the Met Gala 2024. Angela Weiss / AFP

AFP

Jennie at the Met Gala 2024. Aliah Anderson / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

Getty Images via AFP

Jennie at the Met Gala 2024. Aliah Anderson / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

Getty Images via AFP

This year’s theme is: The Garden of Time. The exhibition is divided into three categories: Earth, Sea and Sky. With her blue dress that forms the movement of waves, her shell earrings, her pearl belly chain and her pulled hair, Jennie is one of the only celebrities to represent water. Her unparalleled elegance made her look one of the most successful of the evening. Total change of atmosphere for the Met Gala after party, she is now wearing a total black look.

Stray Kids is the first K-pop group to appear in full on the Met Gala red carpet. For the occasion, the eight members of the boy band were dressed by Tommy Hilfiger. They first appeared in tailored navy jackets, then took them off to hit the floor in matching red, white and blue suits. They took advantage of the event to announce their world tour in forty countries. Unfortunately, they did not have an ideal experience. Videos revealed on social networks show photographers spewing racist and disrespectful remarks about them, and only two meters from them. Two of the group members speak English fluently and obviously had to understand everything that was said. On social networks, Internet users are very angry.

Stray Kids at the 2024 Met Gala. John Shearer/WireImage

John Shearer

Stray Kids at the 2024 Met Gala. Taylor Hill/Getty Images

Taylor Hill/Getty Images

The importance of K-pop singers at prestigious events

For several years now, the Met Gala has been inviting K-pop stars. IN 2013 there was Psychthe interpreter of the legendary “Gangnam Style”, then Rain in 2015, Lay of the EXO group in 2019, Pink of Blackpink, who wore an Yves Saint Laurent dress, as well as Lee Chae Rinbetter known as CL and member of the girl band 2NE1, in 2021. In 2022, there was one of the members of NCT, JohnnyThen Jackson Wang and Jennie in 2023.

Because they are rare, each public appearance of a K-pop singer shakes the internet and brings valuable visibility to the event in which he participates. In 2021, Blackpink member Rosé was the most mentioned celebrity on social media during the Met Gala according to Netbase Quid. In 2023, it was the same for Jennie. This year, in first position, we find Jennie again, with almost two million tweets about her on X, followed by Stray Kids. In third place there is Ariana Grandewith almost 500,000 tweets, then Zendaya. International events have every interest in focusing on diversity and inviting artists from the other side of the world thanks to the incredible visibility they bring.