Despite some debate about the promotional photos, BLACKPINK’s Lisa (리사)’s comeback has been one of the most talked-about comebacks as of late and ever since the teaser dropped, fans have been eagerly waiting for her new song “ROCKSTAR” to be released. The day has finally arrived and the reaction to her latest release has so far been overwhelmingly positive!
The music video for “ROCKSTAR” was posted on YouTube earlier today (Friday, 28th June) on LLOUD’s official channel and has already broken some records. To celebrate the rapper’s latest milestone, here are some fun facts about her new song and music video:
1. Most viewed music video teaser by a K-pop act
Before the official “ROCKSTAR” music video was released, the teaser itself reached over 4.4 million views in 24 hours, making it the most-viewed music video teaser by a K-pop act on YouTube. Lisa surpassed her junior BABYMONSTER Ahyeon’s “Sheesh,” which had 2.57 million views. At the time of writing, the music video for “ROCKSTAR” has reached over 4 million views in just two hours!
The rapper previously set a Guinness World Record by gaining 1M followers in 2 hours and 18 minutes after launching her official TikTok channel and her last single “Money” held the record as the longest-charting song by a solo female K-pop artist on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and on the U.K. Singles Chart.
2. Lisa paid RM2.5k to each shop owner in Thailand’s Chinatown to close early for filming
When the teaser was released, the idol could be seen standing and dancing on the streets of Chinatown in Bangkok. It was reported that the idol paid each store 20,000 baht (RM2,560) for them to close up early so she and her team could shoot the music video.
3. “ROCKSTAR” music video featured transgender influencers
Despite only recently legalising same-sex marriage, Thailand is known to be one of the most queer-friendly countries in the Southeast Asian region. With that in mind, it shouldn’t be so surprising that Lisa is an ally to the community. The renowned singer actually featured 3 transgender influencers in the music video – Chinnawat Promsri, Efa Effy, and Bruze Kachisarah.
4. Lisa has writing credits on the track
Fans would know that BLACKPINK doesn’t have as much creative freedom as they would want to when they were under YG Entertainment. Now that they’re free to do whatever they please for their solo projects, Lisa took control of her music. Apart from being a creative director for her company LLOUD, she also served as one of the writers for “ROCKSTAR”.
5. A diss to Westerners’ views on Asians?
Upon its release, one line from “ROCKSTAR” had captured fans’ attention. The line “Lalalisa, can you teach me Japanese? I said, ‘Hai, Hai’, That’s my life,” had many curious about the meaning but fans have since interpreted that the lyric was meant as a diss to a certain mindset by Westerners because of how they treat Asian people as only Japanese/Chinese. While this one may not exactly be a fact, we thought it’s still worth mentioning.
6. “ROCKSTAR” features an instrumental sample of Tame Impala’s “New Person, Same Old Mistakes”
The bridge to “ROCKSTAR” featured an instrumental sample of Australian producer Tame Impala’s 2015 hit, “Same Person, Same Old Mistakes”. The song was also sampled by Rihanna in her 2016 song “Same Ol’ Mistakes”. For your information, BLACKPINK once sampled Rihanna’s 2005 hit “Pon de Replay” in their song “PINK VENOM”.
As the first BLACKPINK member to release a solo song under her own label, we’d like to congratulate Lisa on this amazing milestone! Watch “ROCKSTAR” below:
