Blackpink’s Rosé reflects on high school days in Melbourne as she tops charts with Bruno Mars

Singer Rosé may be a global superstar with Blackpink, but the 27-year-old says she will always miss Australia where she grew up.

Unless you’ve been living in a soundproof booth, chances are you’ve heard the catchy Bruno Mars song APT, which he sings with Blackpink star Rosé that is currently the number-one song on the ARIA Top 50 chart.

But did you know that the K-Pop star grew up in Australia?

The 27-year-old singer was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia in the Melbourne suburb of Bulleen where she went to school at Canterbury Girls Secondary College.

During a chat with Nova 100’s Jase & Lauren on Friday morning, the singer recalled her days on home soil before she became a mega pop star with Blackpink.

“I would love to go. I haven’t been back for a few years. I really do miss it,” she told hosts Jase Hawkins and Lauren Phillips.

“Every time I go back, I do the whole nostalgic thing… I drive past my school, I go sometimes say hi to my favourite school teachers…. 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!”

Rosé was raised in Melbourne where she went to Canterbury Girls Secondary College.

Rosé has come a long way from her days in Melbourne. Picture: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

In her radio interview, Rosé – real name Roseanne Park – admitted she never had aspirations to become a singer, let alone a K-Pop sensation. Although she did always have an affinity for music, having played the piano.

“I didn’t really have friends around me who became singers or anything. It’s just like normal, I went to school and I really didn’t think of it as a possibility,” she said on-air. “I always liked music, but 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.”

Blackpink stars (from left to right): Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa, and Rosé at Coachella in 2023. Picture: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Coachella

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

In 2012, aged 16, Rosé decided to audition for YG Entertainment, one of the big entertainment companies in Korea, after her father heard they were holding auditions in Sydney.

She wowed the executives and within two months she was living in South Korea and training as a K-Pop idol.

Rosé collaborates with Bruno Mars on the single APT.

The duo are currently sitting pretty on top of the ARIA and US Billboard charts.

Four years later in 2016, she was making her debut with arguably the biggest K-Pop girl band, Blackpink. Success followed, including her chart-topping hit APT with Bruno Mars, which is currently number one in Australia and on the Billboard Global 200 charts.

With her continued success, Rosé dropped her debut album Rosie on Friday and she still can’t believe how far she’s come.

“Oh my god! I mean, it’s crazy!” said the singer, who left Blackpink last year to pursue solo adventures.

“I’m like, I’ve been ready for it to be out, so I’m just, it’s a day of celebration. I’m extremely happy, I feel like I’ve been saying it as a joke, I’ve been pregnant for too long with this baby, I’m ready for it to be out.”