TV Talent

Part Two: Destiny

It had been three months since Kimara first contacted YG Entertainment about a collaboration with BLACKPINK.

For Linda Demir, Kimara was a brand, a label, a name for her voice. For the rest of the world, she was a young but accomplished artist and producer. Kimara was one of the hottest songwriters of the decade, having written with and for large artists such as Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and Rihanna, as well as maintaining a steadily flourishing career. 2019 had been a busy year for her. She'd finally got the chance (and the nerve) to go on tour. Thirteen albums and almost five years of performing seemed about enough for her to start, anyway. She toured for seven months, starting in America and working her way to Asia and finishing off in Australia. Going on a world tour had been one of Linda's dreams since the beginning, obstructed only by her fear of crowds and nerves of chicken wire. But she did it. She finally sucked it up and did it. And it was wonderful. Not only did she get to go to all the places she'd wanted to visit ever since she was a child, she also got to meet fans from all around the world. No matter how many times she performed or met them, seeing her fans always set off happy fireworks in her stomach.

The world tour was undoubtedly an unforgettable memory, but it took a lot more out of her than she thought. She got back to the States tired, mentally and physically exhausted, and fully prepared for a long hiatus from the showbiz. She apologized to her fans on social media and crashed in her apartment. After weeks of lounging on the sofa, bingeing Netflix and YouTube, and splurging her instant noodle stash, she got bored. She ran out of movies to watch, pop songs to listen to, and series to follow. She was slowly dying of boredom- but not ready to go back to work yet. One simple reason.

She was uninspired.

This is something all artists- singers, writers, painters, you name it- are most afraid of, besides not getting their work out. Losing their inspiration.

Linda was done. She couldn't write anything, couldn't do anything without hitting a dead end. Every time she sat down to write a song, she ended up playing solitaire or going through her social media. Before she knew it, half the day had sped by and she was no closer to getting anything done than she was the day before. She was worried. Not only was her self-esteem crashing, she didn't want to let her fans down by making them wait and not having anything for them at the end of the hiatus. But she just couldn't get anything done. All she could do was lie down in her room and shuffle Spotify playlists while playing Flappy Bird.

And that was how she discovered K-Pop.

It was on a new releases playlist, a song from (who else) BTS, crashing the international scene. She skipped right over it. BTS was a craze and everyone was caught up in it. She was already aware of the crazy popularity of that boy band, and to be honest she was a little jealous. Literally everyone she knew was a fan. One of her friends was a hardcore ARMY and tried for the longest time to get her into them. Linda didn't have time to listen to other people's songs back then, so she never did. 

But that day she was feeling a little rebellious. Reminded of them by the song, she went on YouTube and looked them up. Oof. God-level dances, dynamics, not to mention visuals. She was impressed by their choreographs, their stage presence, and their professionalism. She dug their outfits. She dug their songs. She dug their music videos. She turned her laptop off before she could dig any further. She strictly forbade herself from bingeing K-Pop ever again.

She was right back at it the next day. Except this time she found a way to dodge her conscience. She looked for another group to listen to. It just so happened that recently K-Pop had reached yet another international milestone with a group other than BTS: the release of BLACKPINK's Ddu-Ddu-Ddu. It was playing on every radio station, it was playing on everyone's phones, it was even in a Shopee advertisement. When she first heard it she wasn't interested, and so let it fade out of memory. But now, with her newfound rebelliousness, she decided to sit down and listen to the whole song. From the first MV she was hooked. Ddu-Ddu-Ddu led to Kill This Love, Kill This Love led to BOOMBAYAH, BOOMBAYAH led to Playing With Fire. Songs led to interviews, interviews led to shows. She started to like them for more than just their music. She fell for their goofy personalities and their mindblowing talent. Whenever she was having a bad day, the girls never failed to make her smile with their antics and weird conversations. It only took a few weeks for her to proudly proclaim herself a Blink.