Is pop a sport? Sometimes it can feel like it: the athleticism that singers such as Beyoncé demonstrate, the sheer stamina it takes to do something such as Homecoming, suggests it might be. While it wasn’t as big, or as politically crucial, or as much of a marathon as Beychella, seeing Blackpink live is like watching the South Korean rhythmic gymnastics team decide to get up and sing a few songs while they’re at it. In other words: these four women are some of the most talented, well-rounded and skilful performers working today and they deserve a huge amount of respect.

The SSE Arena in London was, even with the show running late, carnage: thousands of young people with flashing heart-ended mallets that made them look like a Sailor Scout about to transform and a lobby full of boyfriends and parents letting their loved ones go and dance for two hours. And dance they did: this is a crowd that knows every word (even if they’re not fluent in Korean) and every step and lines of girls are stood there performing every twist and flick to "Ddu-Du Ddu-Du" and "Whistle". I’ve never heard excitement quite like it from an audience: there is such pure joy coming from the fans.

Blackpink know how to be grateful for it too: they speak to the audience less as an evangelist preaching to their flock and more like TED talkers, thankful for the opportunity to share something with such lovely people. One of their costume changes is artfully masked with a mashup of fan performances of their biggest hits. When they ask their audience to put their neon mallets down in the name of a Mexican wave, they talk to them like family rather than from on high. Yet the screams of absolute adoration are louder than you’ll hear anywhere else.

Every song comes with complete choreography, every song is sung live, every performance looks like the band are having the absolute time of their lives. Stone cold classics such as "Kill This Love" and "Boombayah" set the world alight for three minutes at a time, with glitter and spurts of flame. You re-emerge after songs such as this and wonder when you last felt so mindlessly good for such an extended period of time. The answer: probably when you heard these songs for the first time.

Yet for all their ability as a group of friends who perform intricate numbers over and over again, the band also give themselves a lot of time to explore what each of them most wants to do. Sweet, blonde ingenue Rosé comes on and sings sat upon a stairwell, doing a cover of "Let It Be" while someone plays the piano; Lisa, the firecracker rapper of the group, comes out and dances to Nicki Minaj without breaking a sweat or even eye contact; Jisoo, upon an "Iron Throne" of glass orbs, does a cover of Zedd’s "Clarity"; finally Jennie, delayed due to the lift breaking, performs her single "Solo". The band have previously said they want to have a dynamic that allows for them to work together and apart at once and this healthy approach imbues the show with a real sense that everyone on stage is deeply, deeply satisfied with what they've presented. Having their own identities, passions and pursuits while still blending perfectly as an ensemble is something I hope other bands see as beneficial: a kind of Marvel Cinematic Universe of themselves, bolstering the brand rather than diluting it.

The friend I brought to Blackpink was not a cut and dried fan like I am. "It’s a bit over-produced," he argued before. "I just can’t get into the songs." By the end of the night he had his favourite performer (Lisa), the one he fancied the most (Rosé) and his three favourite songs, which he played for his boyfriend as soon as he got home. Neither of us were word perfect future backing dancers, like much of the luminescent audience, but you didn’t have to be: even with only a few songs known between us, even though we don’t understand the words, we never felt alienated or bored. The show banged and banged and banged until it could bang no more and even then Blackpink still had energy to spare for us. The interludes – including one Fast And Furious car chase sequence in Kias, which sponsored the world tour – show that they're in need of a few breaks from the high intensity, but then so is everybody: they earn a breather every time. The entire show had a polish, a vision and an authenticity that – even if it’s not for you – is undeniably complete.

I can’t wait to see what happens when Blackpink have been recording for a few more years, have a few more EPs or albums and really get to curate their tracklist a bit more. I can’t wait to see what happens when all four of them have more autonomous solo careers too and where that takes that part of the show. I’m excited for when more producers and songwriters ask to collaborate with them and their international success turns into a wider pool of talent to work with: their songs are stone cold bangers, but what happens when AG Cook or Charli XCX or Calvin Harris gets into the room with them? It’ll be exciting to see what they can teach our pop stars and what they can gain from ours. This was their first time performing in London, they said, but they hope it won’t be their last. I hope so too: there’s a lot of people out there at the moment who need to see how pop should be done. These women have trained for years and it shows: Blackpink's in your area and they are the Olympians of pop music.

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