Blackpink dance cover queen Ky: meet the YouTuber who joins K-pop groups BTS, Itzy and Twice in viral music videos of hits like How You Like It and As If It’s Your Last

Nov 21 , 2020

Blackpink … plus Ky? has earned hundreds of thousands of followers by inserting herself into some of K-pop’s best known dance routines. Photo: Ky27/YouTube

Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé, Lisa and … Michelle? Find out who netizens are dubbing the (unofficial) fifth member of Blackpink, and why she already has nearly half a million subscribers on YouTube

Despite the fact that every K-pop song is different, there are nevertheless a handful of key ingredients – synthesised music, punchy dance routines and fashionable outfits – and they’re probably the reason the genre has taken the world by storm in the first place.

So important are the dance routines to K-pop’s success, in fact, that anyone who says they don’t energetically dance along to most of the music videos, especially when nobody is watching, is probably lying.

Which brings us to YouTuber Ky, who is most definitely one of us; however, instead of keeping her fan-girl behaviour hidden from the world, she has decided to share it with everyone. Heck, if our dance techniques and video editing skills were as good as hers, we think we would too.

After starting her YouTube channel named Ky27 eight years ago, Ky now has more than 450,000 subscribers and over 500,000 of followers on Instagram. Two of her most popular videos on YouTube are dance covers of Blackpink hits As If It’s Your Last and How You Like It – attracting over three million viewers each!

Despite referring to her works as a parody, her subscribers seem to love her work almost as much as that of Jennie, Jisoo, Rosé and Lisa. “If Blackpink is a five member group, the other one is her,” commented one netizen. “The fact that she is so in sync scares me”, joked another commentator.

STYLE caught up with Ky to find out more.

Where are you from? What’s your real name and what do you do for work?

I’m Chinese-Canadian and I’m currently based in Toronto, Canada. I had quite a diverse background growing up – I was born and raised in Singapore until grade three, then I went to school for a bit in Shanghai and moved to Toronto for high school onwards.

My real name is Michelle, but it’s quite a common name so I opted for “Ky” which is my nickname and the reason I use it online – it’s simple and unique. I just turned 23 this year and I’m currently a freelance video editor/content creator and an aspiring music video director!

Based in Toronto, Ky is currently a freelance video editor. Photo: Ky27/YouTube

Why did you decide to make K-pop dance cover videos?