Lollapalooza is one of the world's largest and most prestigious music festivals, attracting hundreds of thousands of attendees every year. It is widely regarded as one of the most important gateways for K-pop artists to expand their influence in the Western market and showcase their abilities to a mainstream au∂ιєnce. Being selected as a Lollapalooza headliner is considered an even greater honor. In recent years, only a handful of K-pop acts have achieved this milestone, including j-hope (2022), Stray Kids (2024), and TWICE (2025).
Meanwhile, Lollapalooza Chicago 2026 took place from July 30 to August 2 at Grant Park, featuring more than 170 artists across multiple stages. BLACKPINK's Jennie became one of the most talked-about K-pop artists at this year's festival as a headliner. During her set, she performed a series of fan-favorite songs, including Solo, Like JENNIE, One Of The Girls, as well as several tracks from her album Ruby. Throughout the performance, the singer maintained impressive energy, continuously engaging the crowd and leading tens of thousands of fans in singalongs to her biggest нιтs.
No one can deny Jennie's achievements or her individual impact. However, acknowledging someone else's success does not mean ARMYs have to accept what they believe is false reporting by the media—especially when those reports allegedly erased j-hope's historic milestone in favor of promoting the BLACKPINK member.
Recently, a post that amαѕѕed more than 500,000 engagements called out a K-media article describing Jennie as the first solo artist to headline Lollapalooza Chicago. The author questioned the report, writing: "Are they media-playin' or what? The first solo artist to headline Lollapalooza Chicago wasn't her, it was j-hope. How do you even write a headline like this without fact-checking? (Or was it on purpose?)"
Other fans also presented multiple pieces of evidence, arguing that the K-media article's claim was factually incorrect!
The first was a post from Lollapalooza's official account following j-hope's performance in Chicago in 2022. At the time, the festival wrote: "History was made. Congratulations #jhope for being the first South кσяєαn artist to headline the main stage of a major U.S. music festival." j-hope served as the festival's headliner—the final and most prominent performer of the night. According to fans, he also recorded the highest ticket sales at Lollapalooza 2022, drew approximately 105,000 attendees, and helped the festival achieve its fastest-ever Sunday sellout in its 31-year history.
Moreover, in 2025, j-hope returned to the festival as one of the featured artists at Lollapalooza Berlin. In announcing its 10th anniversary lineup, the festival posted: "Our 10th anniversary lineup is here: @jtimberlake, j-hope from @bts_bigнιт, @gracieabrams & many more!" His electrifying performance of Killing It Girl, along with the mαѕѕive "sea" of phone flashlights prepared exclusively by ARMY, later became one of the festival's most widely shared moments.
Based on these facts, fans argue that describing Jennie as the first solo artist to headline Lollapalooza Chicago is a serious factual error, leaving many ARMYs furious over what they see as a lack of respect toward j-hope's historic achievement. One fan even wrote: "Allkpop, Pannchoa & Koreaboo are user-submitted gossip blogs run by kpop stans that hate BTS. All they do is post hate and ragebait for ARMY engagement and have entertainment press post their lies on air as 'sources.'"
The debate continues to spread across social media platforms, with users leaving comments such as: "Dont interact with the post. They want us to run up the engagement on the page,even if its hate comments", "That bullsh1t jhope was the first one when jm fly over for his comfort", "I blocked that acct a long time ago. They have always been like that", "It happens EVERY time, like do people f*cking blind?", "Imagine making an article about a historic moment and getting the most basic fact wrong. So funny", "Stealing achievements as always",....
