As early as mid-May 2017, YG Entertainment officials had confirmed that Blackpink were working toward a June comeback,[6] and on June 5 it was revealed that Blackpink would be filming the music video for the new single during that week.[7] On the same day, YG Entertainment's CEOYang Hyun-suk released a photo of Blackpink on the filming location of the new music video, confirming that Blackpink would make a June comeback, which is 7 months after the group's last release Square Two (containing the songs "Playing with Fire" and "Stay") in November 2016.[8] The next day on June 6 it was announced that Blackpink would likely release the new song between June 15 and June 20.[9]
On June 13, 2017, YG Entertainment revealed a teaser of the new single and confirmed the release date to be June 22.[10] Subsequently, from June 16 to June 18 each of Blackpink's members' individual teaser was released.[11][12][13] On June 19, the title of the single was revealed to be "As If It's Your Last" (Korean: 마지막처럼), and the time of the new release was confirmed to be 6 pm KST on June 22. It was further explained that this song would be a surprise for fans while Blackpink prepares for Square Three (which later became Square Up), the next release in the Square series after Square One and Square Two.[14]
Composition[]
"As If It's Your Last" is described as Blackpink's most exciting and upbeat song that they have released so far.[3] Blackpink member Jisoo said that the group had thus far in their history only had "Black" concepts up until then, and that this new single would be a "Pink" concept.[15] The song was described as a "shimmery" mix of synth-pop,[16]house,[2]reggae[2] and moombahton[2] music with discogrooves,[17] a change of sound from their previous releases.[2]
Commercial performance[]
In South Korea, the song debuted at no. 4 on the Gaon Digital Chart on the chart issue dated June 18–24, 2017, with 181,883 paid downloads and 2,996,521 streams.[18] In the following week, the song reached its peak at no. 3, with 157,224 paid downloads and 6,632,012 streams.[19] The song reached no. 12 on the monthly chart of June 2017, selling 323,104 copies in eight days.[20] The following month it reached its peak at no. 5, selling again about 300,000 copies.[21] "As If It's Your Last" was no.18 on the 2017 Gaon Digital Year-end chart. As of September 2018, it has more than 2.5 million copies in South Korea[22][5] and stayed on the Gaon Digital Chart for 67 weeks.[23]
In Canada, the song debuted at number 45 on the BillboardCanadian Hot 100 on the week ending June 29, 2017, their highest peak in the country surpassing "Playing with Fire" which debuted at 92 in 2016.[24] In Japan, the song debuted at number 19 on the BillboardJapan Hot 100, becoming Blackpink's highest-charting effort in the country. The song stayed at the position for another week.[25] As the song was released on a Thursday, it had one day within the tracking week ending June 22, 2017, in the United States. Despite this, "As If It's Your Last" debuted at number one on Billboard's World Digital Song Sales chart after selling 4,000 copies that week.[26] The song also debuted at number 13 on Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart which, at the time, gave them the highest-charting Korean song by a group in America and made Blackpink the highest-charting Korean group since Wonder Girls in 2009. As of April 2019, the track had reached 11.7 million streams in the UK.[27]
Music video and promotion[]
On June 20, a teaser of the music video was released on both Blackpink's official YouTube channel and the group's official V Live channel.[28][29] The following day, a behind-the-scenes video was released, and YG Entertainment announced that the group would hold a comeback special live on Naver's V App at 8 pm KST on June 22.[30]
On June 22 at 6 pm KST, "As If It's Your Last" was released on major music portals in South Korea, and its music video was released on Blackpink's YouTube and V Live channels.[31] Within 17 hours after release, the music video for "As If It's Your Last" gained more than 11 million views on YouTube, becoming the fastest music video to exceed 10 million views by a K-pop group at that time and breaking the record previously held by "Not Today" by BTS, which gained 10 million views within 21 hours.[32][33] Furthermore, the music video became the second most viewed online video in the first 24 hours by a Korean act, with more than 13.3 million views within 24 hours after release, second only to Psy's "Gentleman".[34][35] On June 24, the dance practice video for "As If It's Your Last" was released on Blackpink's V Live channel and as of March 18, 2021, it has more than 210 million views.[36] The music video hit one billion views on April 27, 2021, making Blackpink the only K-pop artist with four music videos to break the one billion mark.[37]
Blackpink promoted "As If It's Your Last" on various music shows in South Korea in the month leading up to their Japanese debut in July.[9] Specifically, the group held their comeback stage on MBC's Show! Music Core on June 24, which was the first time that they ever appeared on the show.[38][39]
^Stanciu, Raul (October 2, 2020). "Review: BLACKPINK - The Album". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved October 21, 2020. ...the lovely disco grooves of 'As if it's Your Last'...
^"As If It's Your Last" charting positions in South Korea – June 18–24, 2017:
^Lee, Ha-na (January 10, 2018). [2018 골든디스크] 아이유, 대상 영예…윤종신 첫 본상·워너원 신인상(종합) [[2018 Golden Disk IU, for honor ... Yoon Jong-shin's first prize and Wanna One rookie award (general)]. Sedaily (in Korean). Retrieved July 9, 2020.
