Watch: BLACKPINK's Lisa Performs On "Kingdom" + Stray Kids And iKON Both Cover BLACKPINK

May 20, 2021

On the latest episode of Mnet’s “Kingdom: Legendary War,” BLACKPINK was in the area!

During the May 20 broadcast of the idol competition show, “Kingdom” wrapped up the first half of Round 3—the collaboration unit battles—and kicked off its individual group “No Limit” performances.

Unlike the first two rounds of competition, Round 3 of “Kingdom” is divided into two parts. In the first part of the round, the six competing groups split up into two teams of three groups each for rap, dance, and vocal unit collaboration performances: ATEEZ, Stray Kids, and BTOB formed one team, while THE BOYZ, SF9, and iKON formed the other.

Last week, the two teams faced off in rap unit and dance unit battles, and this week, THE BOYZ’s New and Sangyeon, SF9’s Inseong and Jaeyoon, and iKON’s Junhoe and Jinhwan went up against ATEEZ’s Jongho, Stray Kids’ Seungmin, and BTOB’s Eunkwang.

The first team (“It’s One”) put their own spin on Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon’s “Spark,” while the second (“Mayfly”) covered IU’s “Love Poem.”

“It’s One” (THE BOYZ, SF9, and iKON) – Taeyeon’s “Spark”

“Mayfly” (ATEEZ, Stray Kids, BTOB) – IU’s “Love Poem”

For the collaboration battles, unlike previous rounds of “Kingdom,” there were no evaluations by a panel of experts, and the six competing groups did not cast votes. Instead, the show brought in a special audience of 33 “evaluators” that included Super Junior‘s Donghae and Shindong, choreographer Lia Kim, music producer Shinsadong Tiger, music producing team MonoTree, music critic Kim Young Dae, music video director Jang Dong Joo, and idol groups Weeekly, BDC, MIRAE, and TRI.BE.

Spoilers

After watching the performances, the 33 special “evaluators” in the audience cast their votes live, and the “Mayfly” team (ATEEZ, Stray Kids, BTOB) beat the “It’s One” team (THE BOYZ, SF9, and iKON) in both the dance unit battle from last week and this week’s vocal unit battle.

In the second half of Round 3, each of the six competing groups staged a performance that matches the theme “No Limit,” meaning that the groups were free to perform any song of their choosing and to bring in whatever featuring artists they liked.

As the first group up, iKON kicked things off with an exciting reinterpretation of BLACKPINK’s popular B-side “Pretty Savage“—and, to take things up a notch, none other than BLACKPINK’s Lisa joined them on stage for the performance.

However, in a coincidence that had all the contestants surprised, iKON wasn’t the only group to cover BLACKPINK: Stray Kids—who happened to be up next after iKON—also chose to perform a mashup of BLACKPINK’s “DDU-DU DDU-DU” and their own hit “God’s Menu.”