Review: Jennie's Lollapalooza debut offers ‘Ruby’ gems but a bit too much new material to fully grab on to 56%
By Selena Fragassi61%
8/1/2026, 9:08:14 PM
Keywords: Jennie, Lollapalooza, K Pop, Music Review, Ruby, Blackpink, Tame Impala, Grant Park, Bud Light Stage
BS Summary: This article contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Hasty Generalization, and Confirmation Bias, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 44.6% saturation with 383 hits. Analysis detected 1,721 faulty-reasoning hits from 858 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 47.9% and a BS Rank of 56% (11,363 of 25,563 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 55.60% of the article peer group.
The smell of kerosene at the start of Jennie’s set should’ve been the first clue something was off.
It was just a natural byproduct of using massive fireballs at the top of the show — to give the dramatic effect of “burning” a red curtain that eventually dropped to unveil the South Korean singer.
But in hindsight it felt symbolic of a performance that lacked fire early on.
Hopes were high for Jennie, who was making her festival debut, marking the first time a female solo K-pop star headlined Lolla.
She followed the long line of contemporaries who have dominated the festival in recent years, from NewJeans and TWICE in 2023 and 2025, respectively, to i-DLE, who performed on Friday.
But unlike the strong ensembles that have taken the stage as a unit, Jennie appeared to struggle on her own, especially compared to the times she’s been more dynamic with her girl group Blackpink .
Last summer, when the quartet took on Soldier Field, Jennie was an integral part of the production, both in group numbers and her solo bits.
At Lollapalooza, that shine dulled at times as the scale of the main stage and a dizzying number of skilled dancers and male pages that helped her with costume changes and ascending/descending stairs overpowered her.
Adding to the issue was an unbalanced sound mix that awkwardly tuned up her vocals, making the output sound flat in spots and pointed out any flaws, though minor.
Jennie performs on the Bud Light Stage on the third day of Lollapalooza in Grant Park on Saturday.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
The effect was most apparent on “Dracula,” Jennie’s song with Tame Impala, where a blend of her singing and a recording of Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker sounded like little more than glorified karaoke.
Last week, the two artists joined forces in Boston and performed the song live together for the first time.
It would’ve been a great add-on to Jennie’s Lollapalooza set, too, which lacked in the surprise collaborations that have been dominating other headlining performances this weekend.
But there were moments when Jennie still held her own.
In just a brief one-hour set, the star packed in most of the gems off “Ruby,” her 2025 solo debut, with the support of live musicians.
Among the highlights were pop anthem “Mantra,” the feminist chorale “ExtraL” and the hip-hop bullet “Like Jennie,” the latter a true high point of the set as the singer proved why she was tapped as a headliner in the first place.
Even a year later, the album remains a strong entrant in the current pop canon, full of dynamite collaborations with Doechii, Dua Lipa, Childish Gambino and Kali Uchis, and showing Jennie’s wide range as a rapper on “Filter” to R&B/pop star on “Love Hangover” to balladeer on slowed-down numbers such as “Starlight” and “Seoul City.”
Jennie performs on the Bud Light Stage on the third day of Lollapalooza in Grant Park on Saturday.
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times
She only has so much material at the moment to make up a full headlining spot, and Jennie mined the gap with a small suite of new and unreleased music, including songs “Heaven,” “Lock It Down” and “Sweet Tooth,” adding lyrics to the screen to help the audience engage with the material (the hardcore fans in the front were eating it up but the rest of the crowd seemed to check out).
Some of the songs — like “Less Than a Lover,” released July 24 — had some time to sink in with fans, but there was too much space given to the unknown music for the masses to fully grab onto in the same way as her marquee hits.
Jennie’s crowd at the Bud Light stage was already on the thin side to begin with as she was up against Grammy Best New Artist Olivia Dean, who headlined on the other side of Grant Park.
But more people started to trickle out during the parade of new songs, not able to sing or dance along to the numbers, which is of course a predominant part of the K-pop experience.
Still, Jennie was grateful for the experience and for making Lollapalooza history.
“It has been a full journey to get here,” she said before closing out the set.
“What a beautiful night we got together.”
For more on Lollapalooza:
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Photos: What we saw at Lollapalooza Day 2
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Dracula (song with Tame Impala)
With The Ie (Way Up)
Analysis
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