DEADLINE

The record

DEADLINE is BLACKPINK’s third mini album, released at 2 p.m. KST on 27 February 2026 with five tracks. The title track is ‘GO’. Star News reported it as the group’s first record with all four members in three years and five months, and ‘뛰어 (JUMP)’, out as a single in July 2025, opens it. YG Entertainment had announced the return in January and set the date.

The album introduction calls the record the group’s first as a full group in about four years, and says the five tracks “concentrate BLACKPINK’s own strong presence and musical spectrum”. The same text describes the title track as a song built around an explosive hook and an unyielding energy, with the chant “Blackpink’ll make ya” carrying a message of courage and solidarity.

Reviews

Clash gave the record 8 out of 10 on the day of release. Robin Murray wrote that “the crunching EDM low-end of ‘GO’ feels taut and aggressive, a feisty stadium-filling demand”, and closed on the record as a whole: the four “tread the perfect line between evolution and honouring their trademark style”.

Rob Sheffield reviewed it for Rolling Stone on 28 February 2026 and singled out one track: “‘Champion’ is the biggest musical change-up on Deadline — and the strongest tune by a mile.” He heard it as a trip into Eighties new wave, “rocking with heavily flanged guitar” out of the same period.

Jeff Benjamin ranked the five tracks for Billboard on the day of release and put ‘GO’ at the top. He wrote that the beat drops into “a whirlpool of grinding, turbo-charged synths in one of BLACKPINK’s most innovative breakdowns ever”, and that “‘GO’ is not only the best song on DEADLINE, but a truly representative track of BLACKPINK.”

Jung Ha-rim covered the record for IZM on 7 March 2026. Of the title track she wrote that the chorus, where a heavy bass and a synthesiser that recalls dubstep churn together, carries a presence clearer than at any time before, on sound alone; while much of a K-pop scene returning to electronic music heads for house, she read this record as taking another road.

Quibi wrote about the record for Idology (아이돌로지) on 13 March 2026. Of the early-2010s cinematic EDM pop that ‘GO’ stands on, the note says the weight and the width of the space that style carries make a vessel able to hold the group’s scale, and that the members’ presence already fills the song without their having to strain or show off.

Among the tracks

‘GO’ was made by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Cirkut and TEDDY, the group’s long-standing producer. Billboard noted that it is the first song all four members have written on together, 10 years into the group.

‘Champion’ was co-written by EJAE. The same piece notes that she co-wrote ‘Golden’ for the Netflix film KPop Demon Hunters, and describes the track opening on a driving synth-rock-pop production before the chorus.

‘뛰어 (JUMP)’ came out as a pre-release single in July 2025. Billboard wrote that it reached number 28 on the Hot 100 and that Diplo, who worked on it, blended hard-style EDM breakdowns with country-tinged pop melodies.

Numbers

The Korea Herald reported on 6 March 2026, citing the label and a local tally, that the record sold more than 1.77 million copies in its first week. The same report gave 1.46 million copies on the day of release, put the album at number one on the iTunes album chart in 38 regions, and noted that the music video for ‘GO’ topped YouTube’s most-watched list over 24 hours.

The Korea Times reported on 9 March 2026 that the record entered the Billboard 200 at number eight with 52,000 equivalent album units in the United States, 41,000 of them physical sales. The same outlet reported in August that the title track became the group’s eleventh entry on the Hot 100.