JENNIE has officially announced her long-awaited new single “Less Than a Lover,” ending weeks of speculation surrounding the unreleased track. The BLACKPINK star confirmed that the song will arrive this Friday, July 24, at 12 a.m. EDT (1 p.m. KST), alongside a music video directed by JENNIE herself.
The announcement marks her first solo release since her acclaimed debut album Ruby, which arrived in March 2025. Even more notably, JENNIE is the sole songwriter and composer credited on “Less Than a Lover,” putting her creative vision fully at the center of the song.
Excitement around the track has been building throughout the summer. Fans first heard “Less Than a Lover” during JENNIE’s Governors Ball performance in New York in June before it returned during her headline sets at Roskilde Festival on July 3 and Poland’s Open’er Festival. Those performances also introduced unreleased songs “Lock It Down” and “Heaven,” with JENNIE promising audiences that new music would arrive “very soon.”
Promotion accelerated over the past week through a series of cryptic teasers. On July 18, she shared what appeared to be a still from the music video featuring a mystery man, fueling theories about the visual concept. One day later, another message appeared on her Instagram broadcast channel reading, “The summer I chose to pause the love story,” a lyric many fans connected directly to the upcoming single.
Having JENNIE direct the music video herself adds another milestone to her expanding creative résumé. Since launching her independent label Odd Atelier after departing YG Entertainment as a solo artist, she has steadily taken greater control over her artistic output.
The release follows the massive success of Ruby, which debuted in the top 10 across 19 countries and became one of the biggest solo projects ever released by a K-pop female artist. The album sold more than 660,000 copies during its first week in South Korea, later earning triple platinum certification from the Korea Music Content Association. Singles including “Mantra,” “Like Jennie,” “Love Hangover,” “ExtraL,” and “Handlebars” all reached the Billboard Hot 100, while “Like Jennie” climbed to No. 5 on the Billboard Global 200.
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