BlackPink member Jennie released her new single Mantra on October 11. In this song, Jennie shows off her outstanding confidence with the message: “Love yourself as you are.” Jennie wants listeners to feel positive energy through Mantra .

The song is quite simple and catchy, but Jennie developed it as a unique flow by using her strengths of being able to both sing and rap. However, there are many mixed opinions surrounding the product. In addition to the image being commented as being overly sexy, Mantra ‘s music also caused division in the music listening community.

The song’s lyrics were criticized as cliché.

Review site The Bias List gave Mantra a very modest score of 4.75 out of 10. BlackPink’s Jennie has a rather small solo discography, both in quantity and quality, according to The Bias List . “Has there ever been a K-pop artist as successful as BlackPink despite singing a superficial theme throughout their entire musical career?”, The Bias List asked.

Jennie describes Mantra as “a fun, upbeat anthem that celebrates the power of women and inspires every woman to shine in her own way with confidence”.

However, similar to Lisa’s Rockstar , Jennie’s Mantra ’s focus on beauty, glamorous parties, and how she “slays” only makes the song empty. “This is the mantra for pretty girls, showing off like that and just landed in LA” or “Pretty girls sitting in fancy cars, we know how to protect each other, not letting anyone get lost” are the lyrics that are repeated throughout the song.

“Awesome, beautiful people don’t need to constantly talk about how awesome and beautiful they are, and when they do, it makes them that much less awesome. Many silly pop songs succeed (even go viral) on the strength of the melody, the production, or the star’s popularity. Jennie has so much charisma, but a song as annoying and cliché as Mantra doesn’t do her any favors,” The Bias List wrote.

Overall, listeners’ opinions about Mantra are very divided. While many people commented that its lyrics are cliché, the song’s duration is too short, and Jennie’s performance is not attractive because it is monotonous and lacks highlights, there are opinions praising Mantra . Writing about this song, The Korea Times described: ” Mantra is a powerful and energetic song that encourages everyone to shine in their own unique way. The song conveys a message of self-love and mutual support.”

The Mantra music video opens with a scene inspired by the 1998 comedy Rush Hour , with a child singing along to Jennie’s new song. The MV then cuts to the K-pop star in a completely different look as she steps out of a vintage car and performs the song’s choreography.

The visuals and performance delve into the sensuality. In the MV, Jennie draws attention with her outfit and choreography that maximize her sexiness. The blonde Jennie appears in a daring outfit, freely expressing her sexiness by showing off her body through provocative dance moves that are almost like twerking. Jennie has shown her sexy side before, but with this song, she shows off her sexiness even hotter than before.

And similar to the lyrics, the image of the BlackPink member has caused an endless debate. Even a post about Jennie’s sexy image posted on the Pann forum attracted many different types of comments, including viewers who were unhappy that the female singer was dressed too revealingly.

“This is not new, she has always liked to dress like this”, “This is very popular abroad but it looks cheap and cheesy”, “Jennie spreads the message that women are beautiful when they know how to take care of themselves, not because of their appearance, and will cherish and love them all. But what she is doing seems to be the opposite”, the audience commented.

Controversy aside, Jennie’s song is doing quite well. According to The Korea Times , Jennie topped the iTunes charts in 47 countries, including the United States. The music video for “Mantra” also made waves on YouTube, taking the top spot in trending videos in both Korea and the United States. On Korea’s largest music streaming site, Melon, the song ranked 15th as of 7 p.m. on October 12 (local time).

Mantra ‘s highest ranking on domestic music sites as of the afternoon of October 12 is Bugs at number 2. Meanwhile, on Geine, Jennie’s song is temporarily ranked 10th. Mantra is expected to rise in the coming days when the BlackPink member promotes the song on music shows.