“Be Unique” may be a common phrase, but for a multinational Korean pop group that debuted the first African, Brazilian, Indian and Belgian idol, it is a statement of identity.
This identity is a core part of their career, which they reaffirm every time they introduce themselves with the sentence; “Be Unique! Hi, We are BLACKSWAN!”
BLACKSWAN is a global K-pop girl group with four non-korean members, namely: Fatou (Senegalese-Belgian), NVee (American), Gabi (Brazilian-German) and Sriya (Indian).
Originally, the group operated a unique “graduation” system where new members were added, and older ones “graduated” from the group at intervals. However, ending the group's long history of metamorphosis in 2023, BLACKSWAN debuted in its current– and final form with the album single “That Karma”.
More than a year later, the resilient group returned with their first EP– “Roll Up”, released on July 31st, 2024. In celebration of this comeback, Glamour South Africa cuts into the busy schedule of BLACKSWAN to discuss their latest EP, beauty, and culture!
It's a little bit past 6 pm (KST), and the lively group who have had multiple interviews all day still wore vibrant smiles on their faces, exuding a contagious energy. The noticeable cohesion had little to do with their similar choices of pretty black blouses but speaks more to the group's synergy, which shined throughout the interview.
Glamour: For this particular comeback, you opted for a different sound. How would you describe the genre for “Roll Up” and what prompted you to go in this direction?
Fatou: I would describe it as (enthusiastically clicks fingers) savvy energy superwoman woman sound.
NVee: Other than woman power, it also shows you can be you no matter what anyone says. You can be confident in who you are and as long as you're confident in yourself, you can do anything– you can Roll Up.
Glamour: If you were to have a K-pop artist or an African female artist feature on a remix of “Roll Up”, who would you call?
Sriya: wow..
Fatou: Yo! Tyla!
NVee: Yes! I was going to say that (laughs)
Glamour: I knew you were going to say that. Tyla. Who else? In K-pop?
Fatou: Hyolyn–
NVee, Gabi &Sriya: (unanimously) Hyolyn Sunbaenim!!!
Glamour: Let's switch it up and get an American rapper. Who are you putting on?
Fatou: Kendrick Lamar!
Glamour: Female artist?
NVee: Megan?
Fatou: Oh oh! wait wait, (makes a cut sign) Megan thee–
Fatou, Nvee, Gabi & Sriya: Megan Thee Stallion! (Enthusiastically breaks into a performance)
“Watashi wa sutaa. Sutaa, sutaa, sutaa sutaa kira kira. Watashi wa sutaa!!!”
Glamour: Thank you for that quick performance. Speaking of performances, your Live performance has been blowing up, or rather, Rolling Up. What does it feel like to perform with a live band?
Sriya: To be honest, we always wanted to go on itsLive because we used to hear all the other groups over there - especially the bands. With bands, it sounds so amazing. The first time we attended the rehearsal session and heard the band for the first time, it felt “wow!”.
NVee: Goosebumps!
Gabi: It's a totally different vibe.
Sriya: On the day of the recording, it was amazing and we had so much fun. And also, thanks to the band for the amazing “Roll Up” band cover. Because of them, we were able to show our good performance.
Gabi: We had several rehearsals before but there's just one shot, one chance! It's one take.
Glamour: So it's various rehearsals but one take for the performance?
Gabi: Yes. It's one take. We don't have another chance to record.
Glamour: Wow. And you did amazing. Congratulations on that.
All: Thank you!
Glamour: In a unique way, you inspire many young girls, what inspires you as a group?
NVee: As artists, I think the main thing that inspires us is music.
Fatou, Gabi & Sriya: (Nod in agreement) True!
NVee: Music keeps us going when we are sad, happy, mad, and need to get our emotions out. It's a very unified thing. I think music is our main push especially since we can create music.
Glamour: What would you say to fans of your nationality/race who hope to work in the K-pop industry or a foreign field with barriers similar to what you've faced as BLACKSWAN?
Fatou: Don't ever let anyone tell you No. Keep going and believe in yourself. Don't give up! It's going to be hard. Nothing in life is easy, if it's easy it's not worth it. It's going to be hard but you'll make it.
Glamour: All four of you are of different nationalities, have you tried each other's indigenous delicacies before?
Gabi: I guess, (points to Nvee) you still didn't try Brazilian right?
NVee: I haven't tried Brazilian yet.
Gabi: (points at Fatou & Sriya) But you two have tried it.
Fatou & Sriya: Yeah.
NVee: I've tried Indian and Senegalese, but I haven't tried Brazilian.
But more than the food, we've learnt a lot about each other's cultures especially when we got to film in India. It's really nice to learn phrases you can say in each other's language and other things.
Gabi: We did try the Belgian fries and the white waffles. They are the most famous ones.
Sriya: We’ve had Indian food many times, and they absolutely loved it. For me, I tried Senegalese food not too long ago, and the jollof rice.. (groans)
NVee: The jollof rice is so good!
Gabi: I tried Yassa, and it was good too.
Glamour: Has there been any African word you picked from Fatou?
Gabi: I'm pretty sure there is but I can't [remember]...
Fatou: whispers to Sriya**
Sriya: Jërejëf!
Glamour: What does that mean?
Fatou: It's in Wolof
NVee: Say that confidently.
Sriya: Jërejëf
NVee: (to Sriya) Which means?
Sriya: Jërejëf means.. (gives a bow) “thank you”!
Gabi: We should learn more.
NVee: Yeah. At least the basics.
Glamour: Still on culture, have you noticed any similarities between your cultures in your different interactions?
Fatou: Senegalese and Indian cultures are very similar.
Sriya: I was surprised when Unnie told me about her culture, and there were many similarities.
Gabi: If you check this way (draws a line to NVee on the left) there's going to be similarities here too. The American and Brazilian cultures have similarities.
NVee: Like in our cultures (points to Gabi) it's okay to go into the house with shoes, but in their cultures (points to Fatou & Sriya), it's not okay at all (laughs).
Glamour: Let's talk about beauty. Bad hair day versus Bad makeup day, how do you deal with either or both?
Fatou: Today is a bad make-up day for me. (laughs in regret)
NVee: For me, when I deal with a bad makeup day, I try to bring at least some spray or powder, and lipstick. But how do I deal with it? I would say, just try and fix it as much as you can. But sometimes if your skin is not okay, your makeup is not going to be good either.
Gabi: I think for me, if my skin is in a good mood, my makeup is going to be good. At least for me, I don't like to put too much shadows and contours but I use a lot of blush.
Sriya: Sometimes it happens, especially when we are going on stage and it pressures our mind. But after that, we remember “We are on stage, let's make it look pretty for our performance”.
Gabi: I'm going to say Sriya overcame a really big barrier with makeup, because when I met her for the first time, she couldn't do makeup. But now she's doing really amazing with her makeup, it's so good.
Fatou: For me when I have a bad makeup day, I just stay at the back. I don't do too much.
Glamour: Your fandom colour is an interesting shade of red, and black, and seems to have been incorporated into the costumes for your comeback. Which members would you say looks best in red?
Gabi: It depends on the tone.
Fatou: Red has a lot of tones and different types of red suit each of us I guess.
NVee: I like Sriya's hair with the outfit from our album photos, because her black hair really suited the red aesthetic colour of it. So Sriya.
Sriya: (nudges NVee) Thank you!
Glamour: What's one fashion item you love wearing for a confidence boost?
Gabi: For a confidence boost, I have here my answer (parades the other members)
NVee: (To Gabi) What you like to wear.
Fatou: For me, it's heels.
Gabi: My fashion item is literally my hair. If my hair is done well, I'm going to be more confident but if my hair is not how I wanted, my confidence is going to be down. I think for me my hair is more important than my makeup.
Sriya: For me, it's a one-piece.
NVee: It would either be the earrings or the pants. The style of the pants especially. I like to wear low-waisted jeans that are really long. Because I have a short torso, I like to wear them to make my torso look a bit taller.
Glamour: As we round up, which song do you think best expresses BLACKSWAN's artistic colour?
Fatou: Roll Up!
Gabi: We are unique, I think we can do a lot of genres, but with Roll Up, I feel like we discovered this is what we want to show to other girls.
Fatou: It has more power.
Sriya: It's like a bold concept.
Glamour: Finally, C'est Jamais Vue incorporates English, French and Korean Languages. As a multinational group, what are your perspectives on multicultural representation in K-pop?
Gabi: Because we work in K-pop, of course, we will share the Korean culture worldwide, but also coming from different countries, we also want to show Korea these other countries and a little bit of our culture and little by little put it into our work. Like C’est Jamais Vue came out as a really good project with the mix. Karma also had a huge Indian inspiration for the concept. It's like a give-and-receive, sharing of cultures and making music worldwide. Music is already universal but we can contribute to that.
Glamour: Any final words?
Fatou: Final words! Thank you so much for having us today! And we hope to come to South Africa soon!
Sriya: (Claps excitedly) Exactly!
Written by: AyòÌféolúwa
