“The song carries so much of my culture”: BLACKPINK Rosé talks about popular song ‘APT’ and its success

Blackpink's Rosé is opening up about the success of her song APT, released last year. The Pink Venom singer released one of her all-time hit songs, APT, in October 2024, featuring artist Bruno Mars.

The song soon earned the number one position on many famous musical charts, including Billboard and ARIA, leading to Grammy nominations in three categories.

As of December 2025, APT has over 2 billion streams on both YouTube and Spotify.

Speaking of APT, she told Variety:

"It feels surreal, because the song carries so much of my culture. It proves to me that even if I can stay true to my authentic self, I can still break records and have the whole world sing and dance along."

Rosé added:

"It’s kind of like the Aussie ‘Oi! Oi! Oi! Even if you don’t know what it means, you just want to shout it."

Describing the song's impact, she said it feels like a time capsule of her twenties, showing her learning to rely on herself, her emotions, and her true self.

Rosé reveals the story behind APT

The song APT is inspired by a Korean drinking game. Since Rosé has a connection to Korean culture, fans felt the song had a more personal touch and appreciated her bringing a part of her culture into her music.

Speaking of the song's origin, she said on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon:

"APT is a Korean drinking game. I remember when I turned twenty, my Blackpink, the girls in my group, got, like, all the alcohol we could get. We were like, "We are going to drink tonight." It was the day I turned twenty, the legal age in Korea to drink. And yeah, like that kind of started it. And we'd play drinking games, and APT was one of them."

Rosé explained that APT means apartment. While describing the rules of the game, she said:

"So you're basically stacking floors on the apartment. And if it's your favorite game, then you'll call out the number. And we will stack it; like, after the chant, we stack it. And then whoever lands on that floor takes the shot."

Rogét Chahayed, producer of the song, speaking to Billboard, revealed that the song was initially R&B, and after talking to Rosé about the drinking game, they felt it could be more fun and cool to go ahead with it.

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