RED HOT, ROSÉ

She's topped global charts, fronted luxury campaigns and helped redefine what a K-pop star can be. Now Blackpink's superstar is chasing something far harder to capture: authenticiity

- Nicole Fell

It's A HUMID WEDNESDAY IN SEOUL, AND Rosé is still stuck in a chair.

For four hours, a rotating squad of stylists and handlers has been perfecting every strand of hair, every stitch of clothing, every angle of her look for The Hollywood Reporter's cover shoot.

Even by pop-star standards, it's an extraordinary amount of preparation. But in K-pop, diligence is the rule, not the exception. And for Rosé — the Melbourne-raised teenager moulded into Blackpink's powerhouse vocalist, now one of the most famous women in K-pop — this kind of discipline has defined her life since she was 15.

Not even a decade into her career, Rosé commands more than 34 million monthly Spotify listeners as a soloist and another 31.5 million with Blackpink. Her Instagram following tops 84 million, putting her in league with Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande. Her face is everywhere: on YSL handbags in Paris, Rimowa luggage in airports, Tiffany jewellery campaigns, Puma sneaker ads. In Seoul, she gazes down from towering digital screens in Myeong-dong; in New York, she beams from Times Square.

She is, simply, one of the most visible women on the planet. Which — like all celebrities who reach this stratospheric level — also makes her one of the most carefully choreographed creatures on earth. Still, she insists that the one thing she yearns most for in the world is unscripted authenticity.