SEOUL – K-pop girl group Blackpink’s Born Pink World Tour, which is still ongoing, has become the highest grossing concert tour by a female group.

The quartet kicked off their tour in Seoul in October 2022 and have made US$78.5 million (S$104.8 million) over 26 shows in 2022, according to Touring Data, which compiles such figures, in its tweet last Friday.

Blackpink broke the record held by British girl group Spice Girls’ Spice World – 2019 Tour, which made US$78.2 million over 13 sold-out shows.

American girl group TLC’s FanMail Tour (1999 to 2000) is now in third place, while American R&B group Destiny’s Child’s Destiny Fulfilled… And Lovin’ It (2005) is down to fourth.

Blackpink interrupted their world tour to perform at Coachella on April 15 and 22, becoming the first Asian and all-female band to headline the music festival.

A tiny Singapore connection was spotted at their gig last Saturday, when Jennie and Jisoo performed in shoes by local brand Charles & Keith.

Their record-breaking ticket sale tally has not taken into account the 16 concerts so far in 2023, and there are also 19 more shows in the coming months.

These include two shows in Singapore in May at the National Stadium, as well as concerts at massive venues in Las Vegas, New Jersey, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

In other K-pop record-breaking news, boy band BTS’ Suga scored the biggest first-day sales as a soloist with his official debut solo album, D-Day, released last Friday under the stage name Agust D, according to album sales tracker Hanteo Chart.

More than 1,070,000 copies of D-Day were sold on the first day, surpassing the record set by bandmate Jimin’s solo debut Face, which sold 1,021,000 copies on March 24.