Do we like Rosé?
Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or acts turned up, there's real climate advocacy, and the record is thinner on other causes than we'd like.
Rosé is the Blackpink member who turned a duet with Bruno Mars into a global hit. She holds New Zealand citizenship, which is why King Charles gave her a standard MBE while her bandmates got honorary ones. Fair warning: the pages we could open say little about her early years, so this is a column about the grown-up record.
Her biggest recent stoush wasn't of her making. After a Saint Laurent show in Paris in September 2025, Elle UK posted a group photo that left her out, and fans accused the magazine of racial discrimination. Charli XCX also shared a version in which Rosé looked heavily shadowed, and Elle UK later posted a solo shot of her. Rosé's own response was a thank-you note to the designer, with no dummy-spit in sight.
On the harm test, we found nothing nasty in her words, nothing she's pushed against any group, and no dodgy company worth flagging. What we did find is that she and Blackpink were COP26 advocates in 2021 and were honoured for it at Buckingham Palace. The honest gap is that none of the pages we opened show her speaking on LGBTQ+ rights either way, so that's an absence of harm rather than a campaign.
In April 2023, online rumours about drug use spread after a photo of her at a party, posted by a Burberry executive. Her agency YG called it “clear false information” and promised legal action against those spreading it. The page we read reports no outcome, so treat it as rumour that her agency rejected.
This year she opened the Grammys with Bruno Mars, with the song up for three awards, and she's been talking about the pressure of the spotlight. In August a rumour that she'd skip Blackpink's 10th anniversary event got shot down by her label, which said she'd locked in her schedule well in advance. Her Saint Laurent ambassador gig also continues.
The good stuff is mostly climate and mostly public: the COP26 advocacy, and an MBE presented at Buckingham Palace on 22 November 2023. King Charles said it was “especially inspiring to see Korea's younger generation embrace the cause.” A clean record, a hit song and no sign of a slide into grievance. We'd happily have her on the playlist.