Born Again: Can Doja Cat and RAYE help BLACKPINK's LISA score her first UK solo hit?

'Focus on my mind, taking my time...I'm a new woman.'

So goes the helter-skelter chorus to one of last year's most overlooked pop bangers, LISA's bouncy New Woman, featuring ROSALIA. It was a high-octane collaboration that was shooting for the stars. Alongside possibly the most forward-thinking auteur in modern music right now, New Woman came with co-writing credits from ILYA (Ariana Grande) and Tove Lo, as well as production from Max Martin himself. 

It was an ultra-confident play for pop superstardom, from an artist who has already scaled previously unassailable heights. LISA, a member of K-pop girl group BLACKPINK, is already a global superstar, and has a place in the UK chart history books - BLACKPINK were the first K-pop girl group to claim a UK Number 1 album. 

As the starting gun on LISA's road to solo superstardom, however, it was sadly quite muted. New Woman - despite its A-list pop pedigree - ended up peaking at Number 55 on the Official Singles Chart. It was the second single from LISA's debut solo album ALTER EGO to miss the Top 40 (its first single, the bracing Rockstar fared a little better, placing at Number 49).

But pop music is not focused on the past. It's focused on the future, and every good pop star worth their salt always has an ace up their sleeve. For LISA, that's the next single to come from ALTER EGO: Born Again, a collaboration with Doja Cat and RAYE.

Like all the best pop link-ups, it's inspired by just how unexpected it is. Doja and RAYE, of course, have a sterling pedigree when it comes to scoring Official Charts hits. As it stands, Doja has one UK Number 1 single to her name (2023's Paint The Town Red) and a further three Top 10 hits (2020's Say So, 2021's Kiss Me More with SZA and 2021's You Right with The Weeknd), while RAYE, of course, finally reached the top of the Official Singles Chart in 2023 with Escapism and has logged four more Top 10 singles (2016's You Don't Know Me with Jax Jones, 2020's Secrets with Regard, 2021's Bed with Joel Corry and David Guetta and 2023's Prada with cassö and D-Block Europe).

Born Again itself will be recogniseable to those who have followed RAYE's tumultuous journey to emancipation. The track - a scintillating disco-tinged banger - was originally leaked in demo form when RAYE left her former label Polydor, but now clearly after a few years' gestation, it's ready to be reborn (sorry), this time as an all-star collaboration!

'I could have made you a believer,' RAYE pleads on the original demo's chorus, all about the regret at what might have been in a now-ended relationship. 'I could have shown you what it's like, every single night, to be born again, born again, baby...'

Really, Born Again seems to be coming at the perfect time for LISA's solo breakout moment given that, in the last few months, one of her bandmates has scored an enviable smash hit on her own, and shown that UK audiences are ready to fully embrace K-pop idols, whether as part of a group or not.

Let's get into the ROSÉ of it all...

APT. - ROSÉ's party-starting pop-punk ditty with Bruno Mars - became one of the biggest hits in the latter part of last year, almost instantly upon release. Peaking at Number 2 on the Official Singles Chart (sadly never managing to eek past the competition of Gracie Abrams, WHAM! and...uh...Gracie Abrams again!) nevertheless, APT. proved that there was indeed an appetite for the success of K-pop female soloists on the UK charts (according to Official Charts Company data, APT. to date has shifted 538,000 chart units in the UK, including 68 million streams).

Another BLACKPINK sister, JENNIE, scored her third Top 40 single last year with MANTRA (which was, until APT's release, the highest-charting BLACKPINK solo effort, reaching Number 37), while Jisoo has also claimed a solo Top 40 entry too, hitting Number 38 with Flower in 2023 (which was, coincedentally, the first BLACKPINK solo track to crack the UK Top 40).

Basically, we feel like the wind the blowing in the right direction for LISA's true breakthrough as a solo artist in the UK. She's a truly global artist, and has linked up with two of the most acclaimed artists of their time. 

She's elevating. Liberating. It's a new frontier. You could even say...she's a new woman.

Image: Press/Simone Joyner/Getty Images

Born Again by LISA, Doja Cat and RAYE drops February 7 via Sony. LISA's debut album ALTER EGO arrives February 28, also via Sony.