Rosé, Bruno Mars to perform viral hit for first time

TOKYO: K-pop star Rosé and Bruno Mars will perform live their viral megahit “APT.” for the first time on Friday at an award ceremony in Japan’s Osaka, the event organiser said.

The artists’ catchy collaboration – inspired by a South Korean drinking game – was released last month and its music video has been viewed nearly 400 million times on YouTube.

Its rhythmic chant of “apateu”, meaning apartment in Korean, and electro-pop chorus has brought global chart success and unleashed a social media dance craze, with the track ranked among the most popular on TikTok in recent weeks.

South Korean TV music channel Mnet announced on its website that the artists will give the “world’s first performance” of “APT.” on Friday at the MAMA Awards in Japan.

The annual event, the Mnet Asian Music Awards, is a top ceremony for the K-pop cultural phenomenon.

It has been held in different countries over the years, and the 2024 show is split between one night in Los Angeles and two nights in the western Japanese city of Osaka.

Rosé, 27, is a member of the ultra-popular Blackpink – the first K-pop girl group to reach the top of the US Billboard 200 and the first Asian artists to headline Coachella.

She began working with US singer Bruno Mars after signing a solo deal with Atlantic Records, which is also Mars’s label, according to an interview with youth culture magazine i-D.

“I knew people would want to dance to it, but I just didn’t know that everyone would jump on it so quickly after the release, because we teased it so last-minute,” Rosé told i-D.

Some South Korean students were even avoiding “APT.” ahead of a crucial university entrance exam last week, saying the song was just too catchy and distracting.

Rosé, whose real name is Roseanne Park, was born in New Zealand to a South Korean family and grew up in Australia before training as a K-pop idol.