ROSÉ On Her Aussie Beginnings: 'It Was Never My Dream To Become A Singer'

BLACKPINK star and global solo icon ROSÉ (real name Roseanne Park) is enjoying a moment thanks to her song with Bruno Mars, APT, topping the charts in Australia and the US.

Yesterday (6 December), she released her debut solo album, rosie. Spearheaded by lead single APT, the K-pop star has been reminiscing on her journey to fame, which began in Australia.

Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, ROSÉ attended the Canterbury Girls Secondary College in Canterbury, Victoria. Discussing her days in Australia in a new interview with Nova 100’s Jase & Lauren yesterday, she said, “I would love to go [to Australia]. I haven’t been back for a few years. I really do miss it.

“Every time I go back, I do the whole nostalgic thing… I drive past my school; I go sometimes say hi to my favourite schoolteachers…. Like, I actually do all these things, like wow, I’m getting old because, I always say I want to drive past my old house in Bulleen, and we drive past, and I’m always like, oh, my god, I remember my old dog!”

The 27-year-old singer dropped out of Canterbury Girls’ Secondary College before entering year 11 as she’d signed to the South Korean record label, YG Entertainment. After moving to Seoul, South Korea, she trained at YG Entertainment for four years before making her debut as the final member of BLACKPINK in June 2016.

Admitting that she never aspired to become a singer, let alone a K-Pop sensation, ROSÉ said, “I didn’t really have friends around me who became singers or anything. I went to school, and I really didn’t think of it as a possibility.

“I always liked music, but it was never my dream to become a singer because I just didn’t think it was possible, and so it kind of all happened one day.”

She added, “It’s crazy because I was always a shy girl at school, just normal, and so it’s crazy to hear that everybody is listening to my song.”

Check out the interview below.

APT has amassed over 1.5 billion global streams, ROSÉ’s record label, Warner Music states.

With her 2021 single On The Ground, ROSÉ debuted at #1 on the Billboard Global 200 chart and became the highest-charting female Korean artist on the Billboard Hot 100 (a record she broke with APT.) ROSÉ and Bruno Mars performed together for the first time in Japan last month at the 2024 MAMA Awards.