number one girl

Album Review

Roseanne Park’s journey to global superstardom has, fittingly, taken an international route. The 27-year-old singer who now goes by ROSÉ (though she told Paper magazine, “You can call me Rosie”) was born in New Zealand, grew up in Australia and eventually became a part of the four-member South Korean girl band BLACKPINK. And now, as so many boy- and girl-band members before her have done, she’s launching a solo career … and finding success in America.

ROSÉ’s new song “number one girl” is a moody, confessional piano ballad. In it, the singer exposes her desperate longing for love and acceptance. And I do mean exposes. At times, as ROSÉ delivers this plaintive plea for affirmation, I wanted to get out a metaphorical blanket, cover her up and tell her that it was all going to be OK.

Turns out, she feels exactly the same way about the song. In her Paper interview,  she said she wanted to pen a track that was “so disgustingly vulnerable and honest that people learn that I am a person that goes through these emotions, and I hated that about myself. If anything, it’s something I want to cover up. Even in interviews, I’m like nothing really fazes me, you know? But it does. Every word, every comment, it crushes me.”

Accordingly, the lyrics here feel devastatingly raw—which we can likely view as both a good thing and perhaps a not-so-good thing as well.

POSITIVE CONTENT

At its core, “number one girl” is a plea for love. That message is right there in the first lines of the song: “Tell me that I’m special, tell me I look pretty/Tell me I’m a little angel, sweetheart of your city/Say what I’m dying to hear/’Cause I’m dying to hear you.” And ROSÉ expresses it in different ways throughout the rest of the song.

ROSÉ articulates her emotions with almost painful honesty. Her demeanor here is completely devoid of anger, manipulation or ulterior motives. Instead, we simply get her unvarnished need to be loved and accepted.

Whether we admit it or not, all of us have that need—both in a romantic relationship, as ROSÉ sings about here, and more generally in life. That said, we often cloak that heartfelt desire in layers of self-protection, because expressing it leaves us vulnerable to rejection and disappointment.  

Which leads us to the next section.

CONTENT CONCERNS

I really do admire the singer’s honesty in this track. That said, where it gets out of balance is the fact that her identity seems unhealthily reliant upon her would-be romantic partner’s acceptance of her.

In pursuit of his love, she says that everything (which we can only presume includes physical intimacy as well as the emotional variety) is on the table: “I’d do anything to make you want me/I’d give it all up if you told me that I’d be/The number one girl in your eyes.”

We could have a long discussion about the role of self-esteem in healthy relationships. But as far as this song is concerned, the singer doesn’t seem to have much sense of her self-esteem apart from a lover’s affirmation. And when we’re that dependent upon others, the odds of getting hurt, taken advantage of or emotionally abused (or worse) are pretty high.

TRACK SUMMARY

So where does that leave us?

I think the very thing that makes this song so powerful, ROSÉ’S complete transparency, is also what creates concern when it comes to younger or impressionable listeners. They could easily internalize both messages here: that it’s good to tell the truth about our hearts’ desires, but that we must promise ourselves completely to someone in order to get our needs met.

In fact, the latter statement is true, but only in the confines of a healthy marriage. God’s intention for marriage is that it would be a place where we can safely, beautifully give and receive love at the level ROSÉ is describing.

But apart from the protection of this God-ordained, covenantal relationship—where both parties are reciprocating other-centered affection and affirmation—our hearts are wide open to being wounded deeply. But unfortunately, the suggestion that marriage is where we can enjoy this kind of intimacy is absent from this song.