Melbourne’s K-Pop superstar Rose shines in Blackpink blitz
Melbourne’s K-Pop superstar Rose exclaimed “My gosh. I’m shocked” during the sold-out Blackpink concert at Rod Laver Arena when one thing happened.
Entertainment
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Blackpink used a hometown advantage to blitz Melbourne in an all-out pop spectacular at Rod Laver Arena on Saturday.
The K-Pop superstars, one the biggest selling acts on the planet, and recent Coachella headliners, wrapped their urban style hits into a stadium sized onslaught of explosive sound and light production, wild lasers and fierce choreography.
But the foursome — Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa and Rose — also had a not-so-secret weapon in the form of a hometown girl in the group.
Rose, born Roseanne Park, or in Korean, Park Chae-young, grew up in Melbourne, and went to Kew East Primary School, then Canterbury Girls Secondary College in Melbourne.
In 2012, Rose, then 16, auditioned for South Korean record label YG Entertainment and came first among 700 hopefuls.
Two months later, Rose dropped out of school, signed on as a trainee, and moved to Seoul.
“I wasn’t a born performer,” Rose said two years ago, “but I liked to entertain.”
The rest, of course, is hit-making history.
With 8.8 billions streams for individual songs, US chart-tracking authority Billboard this year certified Backpink as the most streamed female group on Spotify.
Their hits include How You Like That, Pink Venom, Shut Down and DDU-DU DDU-DU.
They also have lucrative links to luxury brands as ambassadors to fashion houses including Chanel, Cartier, Tiffany, Dior, Celine.
In Melbourne, at the first of two sold-out shows at Rod Laver Arena, Jisoo, Jennie and Lisa let the local girl have the spotlight.
“I’m really excited to be back here … in my hometown,” Rose said. “I hope mum and dad (are) proud … they’re somewhere in the crowd.”
So far, her homecoming has included a visit to Melbourne Zoo, and the Spark installation at the city’s winter arts festival, Rising.
Rose was thrilled when the whole room responded, on cue, to Lisa’s prompt: “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!”
“My gosh. I’m shocked,” Rose said. “And proud. I’m a proud Aussie.” She added: “We’ve been around the world, and it means a lot when the crowd is responsive as you are.”
Highlights included the thumping Kill This Love, with tough-as-nails beats and melodramatic horns. Tally has loads of sass and self-confidence, and Pink Venom found Blackpink’s cracking band firing on all funk and rock pistons.
Like most mega-pop concerts in 2023, the Born Pink world tour is choreographed and calibrated to the millisecond.
So it was commendable — and cute — whenever Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa and Rose diverted from the script to make an arena show intimate and let one of their girls shine on home turf.
This was K-Pop with a capital Kew.
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