Jennie Says Rihanna Is Her Biggest Inspiration in Her Solo Career

JAKARTA - Jennie Kim revealed her admiration for Rihanna. The Blackpink member called her a major role model and her biggest dream to form a strong influence in the realm of pop culture, music, and art broadly.

The 1996-born singer explained how Rihanna's reputation and work continue to be a compass and main source of inspiration in her solo career journey.

"Rihanna will always be my biggest dream in terms of how much influence she has on pop culture, music culture, and art itself. It's very inspiring for me," Jennie said in a recent interview with Cosmopolitan.

"Finding an influence like that for myself is a dream," he added.

The "SOLO" singer also praised other famous female musicians, such as American rapper Doechii, singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams, and Spanish pop star Rosalía.

Discussing her collaboration with Doechii on the song "ExtraL", Jennie also revealed her admiration for the rapper's creativity. He admitted that he had been monitoring Doechii's works since the beginning and immediately intended to collaborate with him.

"I really like Doechii. She's like a walking inspiration for me. Whatever she does is so creative, and I can see how much time and vision she put into it," said Jennie.

"So, deep down, I knew I wanted to collaborate with her. Through the song 'ExtraL', that's what I was looking for: strong and fun feminine energy. Who better than Doechii?" he added.

In addition to Doechii, Jennie also recalled an emotional moment when Gracie Abrams wrote a special tribute to her in this year's TIME100 list.

The singer, who is also a brand ambassador for the fashion house Chanel, made him touched to the point of tears. Jennie admitted that she was very lucky to be able to share the stage and grow up in the same generation as Abrams.

In addition to her own stage engagements, Jennie also expressed her enthusiasm as a music fan. She admitted that she was very impatient to see Rosalía's concert in the Lux Tour.

Jennie even revealed that she specifically studied Spanish so that she could sing Rosalía's "La Perla" song in its entirety without seeing the lyrics.