The Stunning Transformation Of Blackpink's Rosé

In the world of K-pop fandom, Rosé of Blackpink is a superstar who needs no further introduction. Of course, for those who may not be acquainted with the power of the genre, South Korean pop music generates in excess of $10 billion per year, with fans throughout the world enraptured by the music produced by such groups as mega-popular boy band BTS, Filiipino upstarts SB19 and massively successful girl group Blackpink.

Rosé is a standout performer of Blackpink who has also established herself as a successful solo artist. Since joining the group in 2016, her career has exploded as one of the most popular and identifiable figures in K-pop. Since the highly anticipated release of her album, "Rosie," which arrived in December 2024, Rosé is literally living her dreams. "I've been waiting to release this album for my whole life," she divulged in an interview with The New York Times. "I would always dream of one day having an album myself. But I never really thought it would be realistic."

There's no question that fans will be hearing a lot more from this multitalented performer in the years to come, but how did she get to where she is now? It's been a wild ride, which will soon become clear.

In 1997, Roseanne Park (or Park Chaeyoung in Korean), now better known as Rosé, was born in Auckland, New Zealand. When she was just 8 years old, her parents moved to Melbourne, Australia. As a kid, singing was always something that was second nature for her, and she became fascinated by K-pop early on. Back then, though, she never dreamed that becoming a K-pop star was an achievable goal for someone living in Melbourne. "I always played music for more as a hobby," she admitted in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald. 

In 2012, she'd learned that K-pop was ruled by YG Entertainment, where wannabe stars undergo years of intensive training to groom them for stardom. When her father told her that reps from YG were coming to Australia to audition prospective singers, he encouraged her to give it a shot. "My dad was like: 'Rosie, you sing every night till like past midnight. You obviously like to do this. You should take the audition,'" she told The New York Times, recalling that at first she thought he was joking. "And he was like, 'You don't want to be 26 and regret that you never tried it."' 

She and her parents booked a flight to Sydney, and she took to the stage and sang. After it was over, she assumed that would be the last of it — until someone from YG called to reveal that she'd passed the audition with flying colors. "They asked us to pack up our bags and come to Korea within two months," she said.

It's fair to say that Rosé's head was spinning when she was invited to move to Seoul to pursue her dreams of K-pop stardom. "I was very surprised," she told Vogue Australia, revealing she was met with incredulity when the A-student told her teachers she was dropping out of school in 2012. "Nobody knew what K-pop was, so nobody understood where I was going," she said, adding, "It was terrifying."

The 15-year-old was understandably excited by the new future that had suddenly opened up for her, but it wasn't until she'd settled into the YG dorm and her parents said goodbye before flying back to Australia that it all sunk in. "And I remember freaking out, and that's when it hit me: This is very real," she told The New York Times. 

That was also when the work began. Intensive dance training and vocal lessons began in the morning and would extend to the early morning hours of the next day. "And then it would repeat like that every single day," she added. That training lasted for four years, and she and the other trainees were constantly evaluated and judged by Yang Hyun-Suk (nicknamed YG), head honcho at YG Entertainment. "We would have these tests at the end of every month with YG and we would prepare a dance and song performance as a group and individually," she told the Sydney Morning Herald. "Coming to YG entertainment as a trainee was one of the most challenging yet most life changing periods of my life."

In the years that Rosé underwent her grueling K-pop training with YG Entertainment, she watched some of her fellow trainees launch to stardom and others get sent home when it was determined they ultimately didn't have what it takes to make it. Rosé and fellow trainees Lisa, Jennie, and Jisoo were teamed up to form a new girl-group quartet, dubbed Blackpink. While Jennie and Jisoo were native Koreans, Rosé found herself bonding with Lisa, who hailed from Thailand and was also far from home. "Just understanding what we were both going through was enough to be like: 'I'm not in this alone,'" she told Vogue Australia. "It's a beautiful thing to have a friend you could relate to so much in such hard times."

By 2016, the four were ready to be launched into the K-pop stratosphere with their debut single, "Boombayah." To say the song did well is like saying The Beatles were kind of popular. That track and its followup, "Whistle," became instant hits, holding the No. 1 and No. 2 spots on Billboard's World Digital Songs Chart. Within a month of Blackpink's birth, the group was already a force to be reckoned with in the K-pop scene. They then got to work on their debut album, "Square Up," which was released in 2018. That same year, YG Entertainment entered into a global partnership with Interscope Records for Blackpink. It was clear that Rosé and the other members of Blackpink had become a force to be reckoned with in the K-pop scene.

While Blackpink began its soar to the top of K-pop, Rosé also began establishing herself as a celebrity outside the confines of the four-member (or five, if you also count Blackpink's honorary member) group. That became clear in 2017, when a contestant named Circus Girl took to the stage of "King of Masked Singer," the Korean TV hit on which Fox's "The Masked Singer" is based. After captivating viewers, Circus Girl was eventually revealed to be Rosé. 

That wasn't the only foray that she made into Korean television during that period. In 2017, she appeared on "Fantastic Duo 2," where she was invited to sing a duet with veteran K-pop star Gummy. For Rosé, that was a huge honor, given that Gummy would often visit the YG training facility and tutor some of the aspiring singers. "When I was a trainee, I used to see Gummy ... sometimes in the hallway but at those times, all I could do was just shyly greet her," Rosé said on the show, as reported by Allkpop.com.

As a standout in Blackpink, Rosé's efforts to establish herself on her own bore fruit in 2020. That was when she was asked to become a global ambassador for the famed fashion house of iconic French designer Yves Saint Laurent, which also produces a particularly pricy perfume. The brand's creative director, Anthony Vaccarello, drew inspiration from the fashion styles of K-pop, and tapped Rosé to work with YSL — not surprising, given that she was already a fan of the clothing and had already attended several Saint Laurent fashion shows.  

It was under the auspices of the fashion house that Rosé made history in 2021 as the first-ever K-pop star to attend the Met Gala. She was accompanied by Vaccarello, who told W Magazine, "She is Saint Laurent in the way she lives, in the way she takes charge of how she dresses, in her way of liberating herself from the crowd. She's someone who represents today's society."

For the singer, making a segue from music to fashion was a natural progression. "For us, when we listen to a song, we instantly think of a look: how we're going to dress ourselves, what kind of vibe we're going for," she explained to the magazine. "Fashion has a lot to do with how we feel about the music that we're making."

While Blackpink established themselves as one of the most successful acts in K-pop history, Rosé and her fellow singers had larger ambitions beyond being one of four within a superstar girl group. In 2020, YG Entertainment announced that she, Lisa, and Jisoo would all be releasing their own solo singles. In early 2021, fans received their first look at Rosé's first solo track when Blackpink shared a brief teaser on YouTube before unveiling the song at a virtual concert.

That March, Rosé released her first solo single, "On the Ground," which would serve as the lead single from her debut single album, "R." While she was eager for fans to hear her independent efforts, she also experienced a fair bit of apprehension and anxiety. "I know that my fans have been anticipating my solo and waiting and asking for it. So the pressure was high," she admitted in an interview with Billboard. "It was just being nervous about how people will react to something that was a different approach from what we would normally do for Blackpink."

"R" also marked the first time that she'd shared a writing credit on any of the songs, as Blackpink's hits had all been written by others. "It is my first time approaching songwriting," she revealed. "It was fun throwing in my opinions and thoughts," she continued. "I think that's the reason why the final product sounded like me and the reason [we felt] so sure about it coming out."

Just as Blackpink's debut album soared to the top of the charts, so too did Rosé's 2021 single debut, "K." The lead single, "On the Ground," made it to No. 1 on both Billboard's Global 200 chart and its Global 200 Excl. U.S. charts, marking the first time a K-pop artist had ever achieved that feat.

Not only did that break a Guinness World Record, but the single's video also set a record. Within 24 hours of the video dropping on YouTube, it amassed a staggering 41.6 million views — breaking the previous viewership for a music video within 24 hours, which was previously held by fellow K-pop artist PSY, who'd amassed 36 million views for "Gangnam Style."

As if those records weren't enough, when "On the Ground" debuted at No. 70 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, it became the highest-charting single ever released by a solo female K-pop artist.

In late 2021, building on the success of her first solo album, Rosé shared some news about another venture. Taking to Instagram, she revealed that she'd teamed up with Calm, the app designed to help users sleep better. "I started using Calm almost two years ago and it's helped me get a comfortable, good nights sleep every single time," she wrote in the caption. "I literally dreamed of recording my own version someday, so thank you Calm for having me join in this fun project."

That project was "Grounded With Rosé," a bedtime story in which the singer's voice lulls listeners to dreamland. "Sleeping isn't always easy for me, especially after a hard day," she reveals in her story, he voice soft and comforting as she led listeners through a guided meditation and breathing exercises while also explaining how she's used Calm to assist her own slumber.

There's no denying the worldwide impact of K-pop, but who knew its reach extended all the way to Buckingham Palace? That, however, proved to be the case when Rosé and the other members of Blackpink were invited to the iconic royal residence to be named honorary Members of the British Empire in November 2023. Rosé, however, was the only one of the group for whom the qualifier "honorary" didn't apply since she was born in New Zealand, one of the U.K.'s commonwealth nations where King Charles III is the official head of state. 

Rosé and the others attended a state banquet at Buckingham Palace in honor of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and First Lady Kim Keon Hee's state visit. At the banquet, Charles praised the quartet. "It is especially inspiring to see Korea's younger generation embrace the cause," the king said (via "Access Hollywood"). "I applaud Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa, and Rosé, better known collectively as Blackpink, for their role in bringing the message of environmental sustainability to a global audience as ambassadors for the U.K.'s presidency of COP 26, and later as advocates for the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. I can only admire how they can prioritize these vital issues, as well as being global superstars." 

In addition to the record-breaking success of her solo single album, Rosé also boasts more than 81 million followers on Instagram. All that popularity led to fan concerns that she could leave Blackpink behind and move forward strictly as a solo act.

Those fears were laid to rest in December 2023, when Rosé and the other members of Blackpink re-upped their deal with YG Entertainment. As Korea Joongang Daily reported, all four signed on to continue the group, with the deal including a new Blackpink album along with a world tour. However, that report also indicated that their individual contracts were still being negotiated, meaning they could continue to work on solo projects beyond Blackpink with companies other than YG. "We are happy to continue our relationship with Blackpink," YG chief Yang Hyun-suk said in a press release. "We will provide our best support so that Blackpink may keep on shining as not only our company's iconic artist but also that of K-pop. We send our unwavering support and trust in their paths to come."

The timing was fortuitous. Earlier that year, Blackpink made history by headlining Coachella — the first time a Korean act had ever held the top performance spot at the famed music festival. Although they had performed at Coachella a few years earlier, they were not headliners. "Four years ago we were invited to perform here for you at Coachella at the Sahara tent and that made a mark in all of our hearts," Rosé told the audience at the 2023 festival, as reported by Billboard. "I must say, this is a dream come true ... the reason all four of us are here is because of you."

When Rosé signed on to continue Blackpink with YG Entertainment, she decided not to renew her deal as a solo artist. Instead, she signed on with another label, Atlantic Records, the iconic home of such artists as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Led Zeppelin. "I know you've all waited sooo so long for this moment, but i hope you're READY for what's in store for the next few months!!" she tweeted in February 2024. "i CANNOTTT wait for you all to hear everything!! so hang on tight!!"

In that tweet, she also directed fans to her Finsta (aka fake Instagram account), where she shared a tease of her new solo track, "Vampirehollie." That track took awhile to drop; it finally arrived in December, as a special bonus track on her solo album, "Rosie."

For fans of Rosé, the long wait was over on December 6, 2024, with the release of her first full-length solo album "Rosie." The album was preceded by news that she'd signed a major publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music.

The new album, which featured her collaborating with the likes of Bruno Mars, marked both a departure and an evolutionary leap that finally allowed her to showcase herself authentically. As she explained in an interview with The New York Times, she'd always seen her Blackpink persona as a character she was playing, not necessarily her actual self. "We were trained to always present ourselves in the most perfect, perfect way," she said. "And making sure that I'm a perfect girl for everyone. That was the culture." 

With "Rosie," however, she felt it was important to share her actuality, exposing her vulnerabilities and pushing aside the facade of perfection that was ingrained into her via years of YG K-pop training. And while what she decided to share may have been unfamiliar to fans, it certainly wasn't for her. "All the stories in there are stories that anyone around me has heard more than 20 times," she explained. "It was about time I wrote it in a song."