Playing with Fire (Blackpink song)

"Playing with Fire" (Korean: 불장난; RR: Buljangnan) is a song recorded by South Korean girl group Blackpink. It was released on November 1, 2016, together with "Stay", as the group's second digital single album titled Square Two, through YG Entertainment. The song was written by Teddy and composed by him alongside R. Tee. "Playing with Fire" peaked at number three on the Gaon Digital Chart and topped the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart, making Blackpink the K-pop female act with the most chart-toppers. It was the first song by a Korean girl group in history to enter the Canadian Hot 100.

"Playing with Fire"
Single by Blackpink
from the album Square Two
Language	Korean English
Released	November 1, 2016 (2016-11-01)
Studio	The Black Label (Seoul)
Genre	Tropical house[1][2]
Length	3:17
Label	YG
Songwriter(s)	Teddy
Producer(s)	Teddy R. Tee
Blackpink singles chronology
"Boombayah" (2016) "Playing with Fire" (2016) "Stay" (2016)
Music video
"Playing with Fire" on YouTube "Playing with Fire (JP Ver.)" on YouTube

Background and release

In October 2016, a teaser image of Jennie was revealed, along with the name of one of the title tracks, "Playing With Fire", followed by teaser images of Lisa, Rosé, and Jisoo the next day. On October 31, the behind-the-scenes video for "Playing With Fire" was released.^[2]

Commercial performance

"Playing with Fire" debuted at number 3 on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart, with 203,263 downloads (landing at number 2 on the component Download Chart) and 3,825,893 streams (debuting at number 4 on the component Streaming Chart). The following week, it fell to number 4, before reaching number 3 again in its third week. As of September 2018, the song has reached over 2,500,000 digital downloads and 100,000,000 streams in the country.^[3]

In the United States, the song debuted at number one on the Billboard World Digital Songs chart, selling 4,000 copies in its first week of release. It marked Blackpink's second number-one song on the chart following "Whistle" earlier in the year. With this, they became the K-pop female act with the most chart-toppers, surpassing 2NE1 and CL, who each earned one number-one song.^[4] "Playing with Fire" also entered the Canadian Hot 100 at number 92, making Blackpink the first South Korean girl group and only the fifth South Korean act (after Psy, EXO, CL, and BTS) to enter the chart.^[5] In the United Kingdom, the track had reached 10.9 million streams as of 2019.^[6]

Music video and promotion

A screenshot from the music video, with Blackpink members dancing the choreography of the song in a flamed area

The music video for "Playing with Fire" was directed by Seo Hyun-seung,^[7] who previously worked with the group and directed the music video for "Boombayah", and it was released on Blackpink's official YouTube channel at midnight on November 1, 2016 KST. As of January 2023, the video has over 800 million views. Blackpink also released the dance practice video for "Playing With Fire" on YouTube on November 4, 2016. It was choreographed by Kyle Hanagami, who had worked with them for "Boombayah" from their previous single album Square One.^[8] The group had their comeback stage for both songs on November 6 on SBS's Inkigayo and on Mnet's M Countdown on November 10, 2016.^[9]

Accolades

On South Korean music programs, "Playing with Fire" received two music show wins on the November 27 and December 4, 2016, episodes of Inkigayo.^[10][11] It won Artist of the Year – Digital Music (November) at the 2017 Gaon Chart Music Awards.^[12]

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from Melon.^[13]

• Blackpink – vocals
• Teddy – composer, lyricist
• R. Tee – composer, arranger

Chart performance

Weekly charts Weekly chart performance for "Playing with Fire" Chart (2016) Peak position Canada (Canadian Hot 100)[14] 92 Japan (Japan Hot 100)[15] 81 South Korea (Gaon Digital Chart)[16] 3 US World Digital Songs (Billboard)[17] 1

Monthly charts Monthly chart performance for "Playing with Fire" Chart (2016) Peak position South Korea (Gaon)[18] 3 Year-end charts 2016 year-end chart performance for "Playing with Fire" Chart (2016) Position South Korea (Gaon)[19] 71 2017 year-end chart performance for "Playing with Fire" Chart (2017) Position South Korea (Gaon)[20] 33

Certifications and sales

Certifications and sales for "Playing with Fire"

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
New Zealand (RMNZ)[21]	Gold	15,000‡
South Korea	—	2,500,000[3]
Streaming
South Korea	—	100,000,000[3]
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Release history

Release dates and formats for "Playing with Fire"

Region	Date	Format	Label	Ref.
Various	November 1, 2016	Digital download streaming	YG Entertainment	[13]

See also

• List of Inkigayo Chart winners (2016)
• List of K-pop songs on the Billboard charts

References

1. Herman, Tamar (November 1, 2016). "BlackPink Releases Two New Songs on Halloween". Billboard. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
2. "With Two Days to go Until its Comeback, BLACKPINK Reveals the Behind-the-scenes Video of its "STAY" MV". Retrieved 2016-10-30.
3. C., Daniel (September 12, 2018). "Gaon's 관찰노트" [Gaon's Observation Notes] (in Korean). Gaon Music Chart. Archived from the original on November 28, 2018. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
4. Benjamin, Jeff (November 9, 2016). "Blackpink Earn Second No. 1 on World Digital Songs, Debut on Social 50". Billboard. Archived from the original on April 10, 2019. Retrieved November 10, 2016.
5. Benjamin, Jeff (November 21, 2016). "Blackpink Is First K-Pop Girl Group to Debut on Canadian Hot 100". Billboard. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
6. Copsey, Rob (9 April 2019). "Blackpink's most streamed songs on the Official Chart". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
7. ""D-7" Blackpink, new title track is "Playing with Fire"… "Intense + sexy" first teaser image unveiled". YGLife. October 25, 2016. Retrieved August 23, 2020.
8. "Instagram".
9. "[단독] 블랙핑크, 11월6일 '인기가요'+10일 '엠카' 연속 컴백 확정". 29 October 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
10. "'인기가요' 블랙핑크, 1위 발표의 순간 포착 '감격'". Ten Asia (in Korean). November 29, 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2018.
11. "블랙핑크, '인기가요' 1위..젝스키스 달콤한 컴백무대(종합)". Star News (in Korean). December 4, 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2018.
12. Yoon, Min-sik (February 24, 2017). "EXO, BlackPink, Twice win big at Gaon Awards". The Korea Herald. Retrieved December 26, 2019.
13. "불장난 – BLACKPINK" [PLAYING WITH FIRE – BLACKPINK]. Melon (in Korean). Archived from the original on November 3, 2016. Retrieved November 3, 2016.
14. "Blackpink Chart History (Canadian Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
15. "Blackpink Chart History (Japan Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
16. "Gaon Digital Chart (Week 45)". Retrieved November 18, 2016.
17. "Chart Search "Blackpink"". Billboard. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
18. "Gaon Digital Chart (November)". Retrieved May 5, 2017.
19. "2016년 Digital Chart". Retrieved May 5, 2017.
20. "2017년 Digital Chart". Retrieved May 5, 2017.
21. "New Zealand single certifications – Blackpink – Playing with Fire". Radioscope. Retrieved December 15, 2024. Type Playing with Fire in the "Search:" field.