Olivia Rodrigo owning Glastonbury, Sabrina Carpenter playing two nights at Hyde Park, Charli XCX’s Brat victory lap, 2025 has undoubtedly been the summer of the pop girlies. It’s only right then that BLACKPINK, the biggest girl band in the world, get in on the action. The K-pop titans’ Deadline world tour took over London’s Wembley Stadium for the first of two shows on Friday night, following an 18-month hiatus where the four-piece worked on solo projects. Each member was given plenty of space to flex during the two-hour show. Jisoo performed her dreamy Your Love accompanied by confetti and chairography, Jennie was every bit the swaggering rockstar for her snarling viral hit Like Jennie. Lisa couldn’t have been more different to her softly-spoken The White Lotus character during a trio of brilliant, high-energy tracks from debut solo album Alter Ego while Rosé went full ‘00s for the snotty pop-punk inspired Toxic and a surprisingly chaotic APT.. All four are clearly stars and looked very comfortable on their own in the spotlight but together, they’re on a whole other level. Previous BLACKPINK tours have been incredibly choreographed events, performed with an eventual concert movie in mind. Deadline was a far more relaxed affair – well, as relaxed as a six-act stadium show with a curved runway, fireworks and an entire dance academy can really be. There was still plenty of polish and no one could accuse the group of phoning it in, but they spent as much energy interacting with the crowd and trying to make each other laugh as they did recreating their slick music videos. The whole thrilling gig was wonderfully playful. At one-point FKA Twigs joined Rosé backstage for a scone and a shot. Why? Why not. A live band gave earlier, more polite tracks WHISTLE and BOOMBAYAH an added bite while the obnoxiously OTT pop of Pink Venom and Pretty Savage were clearly written to make a stadium full of people dance. Their music has always been ambitious, taking the best bits of countless different genres to create perfectly-formed pop spectaculars, but there was a joyous, infectious energy that came with performing it in one of the biggest venues around. As the first K-pop group to headline Wembley Stadium, BLACKPINK made sure to have the most fun possible, but they also took every opportunity to soak up the “surreal” and “insane” achievement. “It really is such an honour,” said Jennie, thanking the crowd for supporting the band over the past nine years. There have been rumours circulating online that BLACKPINK will go on a more permanent hiatus after this tour, but at no point during the show did it feel like things were winding down. “I wanted to do a song that felt like a goodbye, just for the meantime,” Rosé said before the tender Dance All Night, deliberately hinting at a return, while the mini-movies that were played during the gig were a celebration of the girls coming back together. Despite their historic legacy it was the recently released Jump, an urgent mash-up of Spice Girls camaraderie and the energy of a sweaty rave, that got the biggest reaction of the night. It’s such a banger, it was played twice. What more could you possibly want?