Rosé’s new song ‘APT.’ goes viral

“To be able to Korean culture to the world, it's like a personal excitement for me,” says Rosé, a member of the Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink, in an interview with US Magazine Paper released on Monday (local time). She expressed her pride as ‘APT,’ sung with pop star Bruno Mars, entered the US Billboard main single chart ‘Hot 100’ at the top 8 after its release on Oct 18, which is driving global interest in Korean culture. “Now that I'm getting live feedback on how fans feel about everything, I’m enjoying it,” she said.

Rosé also revealed the story behind the album's production in the interview, mentioning that Bruno Mars had been interested in the fact the song ‘APT.’ was inspired by a drinking game. It was Mars who selected the song among several duet song candidates selected by Rosé. “Everyone was like, ‘No, he's not going to do it, don't send it.’ And I was like, ‘No, what the hell!’ It's that song or nothing. He asked me what APT meant. I was like, ‘It's a Korean drinking game,’ and he’s like, ‘That's cool.’”

Rosé said one song on the record was written based on her bad habit of doom-scrolling late into the night. “I realized how vulnerable and addicted I was to the online world and that craving for feeling like I wanted to be loved and understood. I’m like, nothing really fazes me, you know? But it does. Every word, every comment, it crushes me,” she said.

Rose focused on finishing her album by going back and forth from home to her music studio. “I would wake up at noon, get to the studio by 2 p.m., write and record, finish between 7 and 10 p.m., have dinner, and then sleep,” she said. "My hobby is my work. Above all, I’m very happy that I could create the album based on my decisions. I want people to understand me as I am.”

‘APT.’ ranked no. 1 for two consecutive weeks on the Billboard ‘Global’ (excluding the US) chart on Nov 5(local time). The number of views on YouTube for the music video has exceeded 270 million, nearing 300 million.


이호재 기자 hoho@donga.com