The path to success is slow for some stars, but a meteoric rise right to the top for others. The latter was the case for girl group Blackpink, rightly crowned the queen of K-pop since day one of its debut on Aug. 8, 2016.

After years of breaking records and writing history, the quartet celebrates the seventh anniversary of its debut on Tuesday with a gigantic elephant sitting in the center of the celebration hall — will all four members renew their contracts with YG Entertainment?

YG = Blackpink?

Blackpink has been its agency YG Entertainment’s breadwinner during the half-dozen years it has been active, especially since 2018 when boy band Big Bang went into a virtual halt after members started their mandatory military service and former member Seungri became the epicenter of one of the biggest scandals in Korean history.

The girl group made up 92 percent of all YG Entertainment artists’ album sales until the third quarter of 2022, according to local analysts, and is considered the biggest factor in financial services’ valuation of the company as a whole.

This makes it crucial for YG Entertainment to extend its contracts with all four Blackpink members until a new act succeeds in decreasing the company’s dependence on a single group, and it must explore all possibilities to make a soft landing despite any outcome.