ROSÉ
Roseanne Park, born in Auckland and raised in Melbourne, moved to Seoul as a teenager after a YG Entertainment audition and debuted in 2016 as the main vocalist of BLACKPINK, one of the most globally successful K-pop groups. A guitar-playing singer-songwriter at heart, she launched her solo career in 2021 with the single album 'R' ('On the Ground', 'Gone') and reintroduced herself in 2024 with the confessional pop record 'rosie' and the Bruno Mars collaboration 'APT.', a worldwide hit. Her solo work pulls her airy, elastic vocals out of maximalist K-pop production and toward the intimate, acoustic-leaning territory of Western singer-songwriters.
Rosé has named American singer Tori Kelly as an inspiration toward her musical style, per Wikipedia's account of her influences — Kelly's gospel-schooled, acrobatic vocal runs and her guitar-accompanied, confessional singer-songwriter mode are a template for the intimate, vocally ornamented ballads Rosé pursues in her solo work.
listen forThrow on Kelly's stripped acoustic 'Paper Hearts' right before Rosé's 'number one girl' — hear how both hang a bare, unguarded verse on a single vocal at the edge of breaking, then let a small catch or run in the voice carry the ache rather than the arrangement.
Rosé covered Mayer's 'Slow Dancing in a Burning Room' on the show 'Sea of Hope', has called him 'the legend of our generation' in an Elle Korea interview, and treasures an electric guitar he sent her afterward — his fluid, blues-inflected guitar phrasing and quiet confessional-ballad craft inform the guitar-led side of her solo writing.
listen forPlay Mayer's smoldering 'Slow Dancing in a Burning Room' and then Rosé's 'Gone' — notice how each builds heartbreak around a clean, unhurried guitar figure and a vocal that stays restrained until it cracks open on the chorus.
Critics received 'rosie' as following the diaristic singer-songwriter formula of artists like Taylor Swift, noting that the echoing chorus backing vocals and guitar-and-drum arrangements of tracks such as 'two years' and '3am' recall Swift songs like 'Welcome to New York'; Swift, whom Rosé counts as a friend and adviser, is a clear reference point for her turn toward personal narrative pop.
listen forCue Swift's bright, pulsing 'Welcome to New York' next to Rosé's 'two years' — listen for the same trick of stacking airy, echoed backing vocals under the hook so a plainspoken, first-person lyric blooms into a widescreen, singalong chorus.