BLACKPINK’s Rosé gave fans an unexpected treat during her recent appearance on The Howard Stern Show. While discussing her hit pre-release single “APT.” from album “rosie,” the singer pulled out her phone to play the original demo recording.
She called it the “APT. 1.0” and fans are equally obsessed with the demo version. Given the success of the viral hit, fans are urging her to officially release the original version.
The lyrics of the demo version were
I’ll be up in room at 17 / Uh huh uh huh / Cherry pick me up from your favorite dream / Uh huh uh huh / We have been talking seven days a week / Uh huh uh huh / You can have my body through the screen / So you should leave your friends up at the bar tonight / It’s still young I got what you need / You can go and call yourself a car / And tell anyone to go meet me at the APT APT APT /
“APT.,” her chart-topping collaboration with Bruno Mars, has become one of the year’s biggest global hits since its release on October 18, 2024.
Previously, Rosé explained how the idea came from a Korean drinking game she often played with friends back home. Known as the “apartment game,” it involves stacking hands while chanting numbers, with mistakes resulting in a drinking forfeit.
The demo the 28-year-old singer played for Stern highlighted the raw, stripped-down version of the chorus, before Mars joined the project.
She explained that the song’s inception was somewhat spontaneous:
Over at McDonalds, I was teaching the boys how to play a drinking game, and they were so obsessed with it. They kept doing it all night, so it was like a joke. We were like, ‘We should make a song out of this.’
This playful beginning led to the creation of “APT.” Rosé also discussed her collaboration with Bruno Mars, crediting him for elevating the track:
Without him, I don’t know if I would have believed in this as much as I could, ’cause he just kind of understood it. He took it, and then he just knew what to do with it.”
Musically, “APT.” blends pop, pop-rock, and new wave elements, and critics call it one of the most energetic and innovative songs of her career. The single also made history by topping charts in over 50 countries, including the Billboard Global 200, and breaking records on YouTube with its music video, surpassing 2 billion views at record speed.
It is the fastest K-pop song to surpass 1 billion streams and the longest charting song on Billboard HOT 100, surpassing Jimin’s “Who.” Nearly a year after its release, the song remains on the Hot 100, peaking at #3.
Meanwhile, fans will see BLACKPINK girls together soon enough as they are about to resume their tour, Deadline, in mid-October. In November, they will drop their first mini-album in around three years, as confirmed by YG Entertainment.
