Girl group Blackswan is at the center of Apple TV+‘s latest docuseries K-Pop Idols.
The eight-episode series, set to hit the streamer on Aug. 30, follows three K-Pop performers, Blackswan, boy group Cravity and soloist Jessi.
The girl group’s story kicks off at the end of 2021 with members Youngheun, Fatou, Judy and Leia. Yoon Deung-ryeong — the founder of DR Music Entertainment, the group’s entertainment agency — explains Blackswan was formed to be a K-Pop group that has a global reach, with members hailing from several different countries.
Throughout the series, the four-piece group (currently consisting of active members Fatou, Gabi, Sriya and Nvee) offers viewers a rare look at the interpersonal dynamics of a K-Pop group, with their journey including group lineup changes, fights amongst themselves and what happens when a someone wants to leave a group.
For Fatou, the group’s current leader, the documentary offers a moment to look back at how far she’s come. “Watching the docuseries is going to be very fun actually because I get to see the growth I’ve personally been through,” the 29-year-old rapper tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I get to see when I was at my weakest and how strong I’ve grown right now.”
In an exclusive clip shared with THR, the performer explains the expectations of her leader role. “I’m freaking out because the members don’t get reprimanded by the CEO if they do something wrong,” Fatou says in the clip. “I’m the one who gets reprimanded because I am the leader.”
Fatou and former member Leia play a large part in group’s story, as a moment during a performance trip to Brussels, where Fatou grew up and her family lives, leads to a very public and seemingly months-long fight between the two women. Leia, although technically still under contract with DR Music Entertainment, is no longer an active member of the group.
The documentary, along with Blackswan, doesn’t shy away from the realities of having to work despite things like fights amongst themselves and being thrown into a new environment. “When I came to Korea, they were already recording the documentary,” Gabi explains. The 21-year-old, along with fellow group member Sriya, are initially introduced as trainees in the series, working to earn a place in Blackswan.
Blackswan in ‘K-Pop Idols,’ premiering Aug. 30, 2024, on Apple TV+.
Courtesy of Apple TV+
“I think especially [during] that phase of my life, I was also really vulnerable,” Gabi says. The Brazilian-born singer shares that the combination of not wanting to cover up the truth and the phase of her life that she was in during filming led to her being more honest, saying: “It made me show, truthfully, what I was feeling.”
Fatou echoes Gabi’s sentiment. “Personally, I felt like the lid… It was just… We were just too full. We just had to have a place to just lay it all out,” she says about the group’s decision to be so honest with viewers.
At the time of this interview, Blackswan had only seen trailers of the docuseries, but the group is looking forward to watching it in full. “We are really excited to see what we have gone through,” Sriya says. “The camera was our therapist, basically, but it also shows how there is a door between our reality and expectations.”
The 20-year-old explains that Blackswan puts so much effort into leveling up as performers and often puts stress on themselves, which can be seen in the documentary. “During that moment, I [saw] the situation in a certain way, and now looking at the trailers, I see, ‘Oh, I was acting like this,’” Gabi jumps in. “It’s a third point of view… Especially, what, two years later? I’m like, ‘Oh my god, did they react like this? I didn’t remember.’”
Sriya of Blackswan in ‘K-Pop Idols.’
Courtesy of Apple TV+
Seeing these moments in a new way seems to be a common theme for the women, even if only based on the trailers. “When I was watching the trailer when you were crying, it made me think back to when we were practicing,” Fatou adds. “I was being so hard on everyone.” Gabi is quick to speak up in support of her group leader: “During that time, we didn’t know. We [were] just living.”
Blackswan has high hopes for how their fans, collectively known as Lumina, will react to the docuseries. “Our Lumina will really have fun watching,” Nvee says. The 25-year-old only briefly appears in the docuseries, but her introduction into the group shows her falling into place like a missing puzzle piece. “I think our fans will really enjoy to see perspective behind the scenes of Blackswan because they’ve been with us since the beginning,” she continues, noting she hopes the series also serves as an inspiration for fans who might want to be artists.
The group, which excitedly refers to their current configuration of members as “the dream team,” knows how they want viewers to react after watching the docuseries. “I just hope that they watch and then think, ‘Oh, they’re human beings too.’ ‘Oh, I’ve been through that too.’ ‘Oh, I understand how they felt [at] that time,’” Fatou says.
“As long as they get us as human beings, I will be really, really, really happy because we’re not just figurines behind the screen,” she continues. “We go through the same things you go through. We have good sides, bad sides.”
“This documentary comes to literally show that in this idol life, nothing is perfect,” Gabi adds. “We are also, as [Fatou] said, human beings behind the image that we pass through the camera.”