This year, Fortune’s Asia team is highlighting several women leaders who are showing influence and power beyond the corporate boardroom.
Here’s who made it onto Fortune’s first-ever “Most Influential Women” ranking: Twelve women from pop culture, policymaking and professional sports, who together show the diverse ways that power gets expressed across the Asia-Pacific.
Blackpink
Hallyu, the Korean wave, is taking over the world—and girl group Blackpink has been at its crest. Lisa, Jennie, Rosé, and Jisoo have broken numerous records since their debut in 2016: the first to sell one million, then two million, album copies in South Korea; the first Korean group to top the Billboard 200 album chart; the highest-grossing concert tour by a female artist. Blackpink, and K-pop and K-culture more broadly, are now a source of South Korean “soft power,” expanding the country’s cultural influence across Asia and beyond.
Blackpink’s individual artists have launched their own agencies as they try to become stars in their own right: Lisa’s LLOUD, Jennie’s Odd Atelier and Jisoo’s Blissoo. It’s a new venture for K-Pop, normally dominated by big agencies like YG Entertainment (which own Blackpink), Hybe and SM Entertainment. Now, Lisa, Jennie and others are branching to new media like television and fashion.—Nicholas Gordon, Fortune Asia editor
