Rosé from Blackpink has been attracting global attention to Korean drinking culture with her new song “APT.” in collaboration with Bruno Mars.

“APT.” was released on Oct. 18, and has exceeded not only the Korean music charts but global charts as well, topping Spotify’s global chart within four days after its release.

The success of this song can be attributed to many factors such as Rosé’s big fandom and her unexpected collaboration with Bruno Mars, but it mainly comes down to its addictive line, “a-pa-teu” repeated many times in the song as APT, an abbreviation of apartment, is pronounced a-pa-teu in Korean. 

While the word may seem irrelevant to the meaning of the song, the song was inspired by the Korean drinking game “apartment,” where the players stack their hands together and remove them one by one as the leader calls out the number. This has sparked new popularity in Korean drinking culture where simple games like these are often played with big groups of people. 

“I am a big fan of Rosé and I’m so happy that she’s creating music that fits her artistic identity and trying different types of music to find her color instead of being confined to her old style in her former company,” Julie Lee (11), Blackpink fan, said. “The primary reason I love this song is because it played such a huge role in spreading K-culture. First off, her whole song is about a Korean drinking game and although a-pa-teu comes from the english word “apartment,” it is still a common Korean word so seeing people around the world singing APT. made me very proud. I especially love how she starts the song with the classic Korean drinking game line and doesn’t translate it to English.”