King Charles III awarded the Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire to the girl group Black Pink on the 22nd (local time).
King Charles III awarded the Order of the British Empire to all of Black Pink members Rosé, Jisoo, Jenny, and Lisa at a cultural artist encouragement event at Buckingham Palace.
President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife, who are on a state visit to the UK, also attended the event.
Blackpink was awarded the medal in recognition of raising citizens’ awareness of the need to respond to climate change while serving as a public relations ambassador for the 26th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26), which the UK took over as chairman in 2021.
The Order of the British Empire is awarded to persons who have made meaningful contributions to British society or have achieved outstanding achievements in the fields of politics, economy, culture and arts, science and sports.
Previously, British Beatles and singer Adele won the MBE. The Order of the British Empire is classified into five grades, of which MBE is the lowest grade of five.
Charles III shook hands with the members of BLACKPINK and talked to them one by one. I also had a brief conversation with Jisoo about the state dinner the night before.
Black Pink was also invited to a state dinner organized by King Charles III for President Yoon the day before.
“I want to see Black Pink’s actual performance,” Charles III said with a smile.
President Yoon and First Lady Kim Gun-hee watched the medal ceremony from behind. Later, he took a commemorative photo with King Charles III and BLACKPINK.
President Yoon said, “It was impressive that Black Pink has been working on the global agenda of climate change as an ambassador for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and an ambassador for COP26, and I hope that Black Pink, which plays a big role in raising national interest, will continue such good activities in the future,” according to the presidential office.
At the changing ceremony of the guard outside Buckingham Palace, a military band played a medley of BLACKPINK’s Ddu Ddu Ddu Ddu and Psy’s Gangnam style.
The royal family posted a video of the military band playing Ddu-du-du-du on social media, commenting, “We play Black Pink on Wednesday.”
The Mirror said it was taken from the famous line “We wear pink on Wednesday” from the famous movie “How to Survive as a Quintera.”
In the comments, royal fans said they couldn’t believe the royal social media account used the movie’s lines or the Black Pink song played at the changing of the guard.
The song was also used as the background music for the video when BLACKPINK was awarded the medal.
Blackpink was the first K-pop singer to stand as a headliner at the Hyde Park British Summer Time Festival, a famous British music festival, this summer.
