advertisement
Music News

Watch Bruno Mars Crash BLACKPINK’s DEADLINE Tour for Surprise ‘APT.’ Performance With ROSÉ

The duet was an extra special treat for BLINKs at the girl group's second show in Los Angeles.

Watch Bruno Mars Crash BLACKPINK’s DEADLINE Tour for Surprise ‘APT.’ Performance With ROSÉ

ROSÉ & Bruno Mars

John V. Esparza

This time, ROSÉ and Bruno Mars met up somewhere much bigger than an “APT.,” joining forces at SoFi Stadium for a surprise performance of their hit single during BLACKPINK‘s run of DEADLINE World Tour shows in Los Angeles.

In clips captured at the Sunday (July 13) show, the crowd of BLINKs goes absolutely wild when the Silk Sonic star appears and joins his duet partner on stage. Wearing matching jackets, Mars and the New Zealand-born K-pop star jump up and down while singing the lyrics to their smash hit “APT.,” accompanied by a fleet of backup dancers.


At one point, the two performers share a hug while harmonizing. As confetti rains down, fans in the audience scream-sing along to every word.

advertisement

ROSÉ typically performs “APT.” during her solo portion of the DEADLINE World Tour setlist, but this marks the first time Mars has accompanied her for the song on the trek. After the pair dropped the track last October, it reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent 12 weeks atop the Billboard Global 200.

Sunday’s show marked the second of two back-to-back BLACKPINK concerts in L.A. After spending about a year apart to focus on solo projects, the band reunited earlier in July to kick off their DEADLINE trek with two shows in Goyang, South Korea. ROSÉ and bandmates LISA, JENNIE and JISOO will now spend the next six months touring on and off through North America, Asia and Europe.

Prior to resuming full-band activities, ROSÉ released her Billboard 200 No. 3 debut solo album, Rosie — on which “APT.” appears — in December. Of working with Mars for the project, the Australia-raised star told The Cut in February that she learned a lot about trusting herself and not rushing the songwriting process from the veteran pop superstar.

advertisement

“I’d always feel like, ‘It’s my fault, I should have an idea by this time,’ or, ‘Maybe I’m just not good enough,'” she told the publication at the time. “Bruno showed me that, as a creative, you have to listen to your intuition and your timing, and you’re allowed to trust in it. I’ve become more confident in what feels right to me and in doing whatever it takes to have that come to life.”

Watch Mars and ROSÉ perform “APT.” at SoFi below.

This article was first published on Billboard U.S.

advertisement
Madeline Merlo
Tristan Cusick

Madeline Merlo

FYI

Madeline Merlo Signs With RLive, Gord Bamford Associate Corinne Szepesi Launches New Agency

Managers make moves in Canadian country. Also this week: The National Music Centre opens an exhibit celebrating Nelly Furtado, Guelph's Hillside Festival unveils lineup co-curated by Indigenous songwriter Celeigh Cardinal & more.

RLive has just announced the signing of Canadian country star Madeline Merlo to its management roster. Given Merlo's status as a gold-selling and award-winning artist, this marks a significant expansion for RLive, a branch of major concert production company Republic Live, producers of the annual multi-day Boots and Hearts country music festivals north of Toronto and in Edmonton. Now Nashville-based, Merlo released her debut album, 2016's Free Soul, on Open Road Recordings and she is currently signed to Stoney Creek. She has won three Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) Awards, including for Rising Star in 2015. Merlo has had multiple charting entries on the Billboard Canada Country Airplay chart.

advertisement

keep readingShow less
advertisement