Rose and Bruno Mars' song "APT." achieved good results. Audiences consider this song to be the biggest hit of Rose's solo career.
She set a new record for Korea as the first K-pop artist to top the global Apple Music chart. At the same time, “APT.” swept the Top 1 of many major music charts such as Spotify Global, iTunes Global, YouTube Global.
One of the milestones of "APT." was reaching No. 1 on a weekend music show in Korea, climbing high on domestic music charts.
That's an achievement that no other English song by Blackpink can do.
Rose herself, with "One the ground" and "Gone" sung entirely in English released 3 years ago, also had difficulty reaching Korean audiences.
However, "APT." broke that rule. Although the lyrics were written in English, Rose used Korean phonetics to sing the phrase APT (short for apartment, pronounced "apateu" in Korean) throughout the chorus.
The new pronunciation not only creates a highlight for the song but also helps Rose score points in the eyes of Korean audiences.
In fact, the phrase "apateu" is a form of Konglish, a hybrid word that mixes Korean and English, popular with the younger generation.
This is also the name of a popular game in Korea that Rose loves. With just one short phrase, Rose has brought Korean culture and language to the forefront of her first solo song.
Rose has conquered domestic and international audiences with a fun song, catchy melody, and funny moves - an image never seen before in a Blackpink member.
In fact, the journey to America for K-pop singers is not easy. According to the Korea Times, girl groups Wonder Girls and BoA tried to approach American popular music in the 2000s by releasing albums in English.
However, these products failed to gain success in both foreign and domestic markets.
Lee Gyu Tag, a professor of pop music and mass media studies at George Mason University, said that Koreans are used to watching their favorite singers perform in Korean, so they are not too interested in songs sung entirely in English.
That is the reason why many famous European and American artists such as Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber or The Weeknd can hardly enter the top 10 of domestic charts in Korea.
When Blackpink collaborated with Lady Gaga and Selena Gomez, the members released songs in English to reach Western audiences, the songs were a hit on international forums but not popular in Korea.
Many Korean audiences believe that all English lyrics can take away the "Korean quality" of Kpop.
With "APT.", Rose celebrates the "Korean quality" but still writes the lyrics in English, creating an interesting and novel blend for the song. The explosive success of "APT." helped Rose become the member with the most successful solo song in Blackpink since the group split up to work individually.
