[Image of vinyl on record player, Credit to Pixabay]

Rosé, a 27-year-old artist who first rose to fame during her time in the K-pop group Blackpink, recently released her first solo album called “rosie” on December 6, 2024 with the record Black Label, the record overseeing her solo activities. 

Although she renewed her contract with YG in order to continue group activities with Blackpink in the future, the group is currently on hiatus to focus on solo projects, which Rosé took as an opportunity to create an album.  

The album includes 12 tracks titled: “number one girl,” “3am,” “two years,” “toxic till the end,” “drinks or coffee,” “APT.,” “gameboy,” “stay a little longer,” “not the same,” “call it the end,” “too bad for us,” and “dance all night.” 

With all lyrics being written and sung in English, the album has received international acclaim, and Rosé has been praised greatly for her success as a solo artist despite being the only member out of the four to not start her own music company and instead sign with already-existing labels including Atlantic Records and the Black Label. 

According to the agency, Rosé was deeply involved in the formation of both the music and lyric aspects of the songs. 

She released “APT.” in collaboration with Bruno Mars, a globally renowned pop singer, on October 18 as a teaser for the album, resulting in a blooming friendship, and followed shortly with the song “number one girl” in November. 

Rosé attended the 2024 MAMA awards in Japan with Mars and performed “APT.” live for the first time after winning the Global Sensation award.

“APT.” topped the Billboard Top 100 for over seven weeks; currently, the music video for “APT.” has half a billion views, and the song has been played 662,062,382 times on Spotify since its release. 

Her inspiration for the song “APT.” which is short for apartment is the Korean drinking game called APT.

On The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, Rosé talks that on her 20th birthday, which is the legal drinking age in Korea, she and her fellow Blackpink members got together and played drinking games including APT.

Following the release of “APT.,” Rosé has been busy attending interviews with Vogue, Apple Music, You Quiz and other Korean television programs, and more.

Rosé also released a music video for her song “Toxic Till The End” with actor, skateboarder, and model Evan Mock. 

In interviews, Rosé essentially described her album as a glimpse into the last four years of her life, talking mainly about her break-up with her ex but also about other experiences. 

She says that she chose the name “Rosie” for the album in order to encompass the diary-like feeling she wishes to convey, as Rosie is the name that close friends and family call her and she hopes that fans will feel this same closeness and vulnerability through this album. 

Rosé also tells Jimmy Fallon that she almost chose the name “Number One Girl” for her album, seeing as there is a track called “Number One Girl” in the album as well, but Bruno Mars directed her toward the name “Rosie” as it is what her friends and family call her. 

Currently, she is the only Blackpink member to have released a full solo album, leaving fans eager to see what she does next.