Lisa Artistfacts

March 27, 1997
Born Pranpriya Manobal in Buriram, Thailand, Lisa, also known as Lalisa, is the main rapper and dancer in the popular South Korean girl group Blackpink. In between the group's first two albums, Lisa released her own solo debut, Lalisa, in 2021. It became the first album by a K-pop solo artist to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify, and its single "Money" was also the first song to reach 1 billion streams on the music platform.
In 2010, 13-year-old Lisa auditioned for YG Entertainment, a South Korean record label that was looking to launch the next big K-pop sensation. When she didn't hear back from the entertainment company after her tryout, she sought the advice of a fortune teller, who told her to change her name. She chose the Thai name Lalisa, which means "one who is praised," for good luck, and it worked. Out of 4,000 applicants, she was the only one selected to join YG's trainee program. For the next five years, she took daily singing and dancing lessons alongside other hopefuls at the company's home base in South Korea and officially debuted as a member of Blackpink in 2016.
When Lisa auditioned for YG Entertainment in Thailand, she sang "Ice Cream Freeze (Let's Chill)" by Miley Cyrus' alter ego Hannah Montana.
During their years of training, Lisa spent so much time with her fellow Blackpink member Rosé, an Australian native, that she started to develop an Aussie accent.
Lisa was the first non-ethnically Korean artist to sign with YG Entertainment.
Lisa became the first solo K-pop artist to win an MTV Video Music Award when the promo for "Lalisa" took the prize in the newly minted Best K-Pop category in 2022. She repeated the feat in 2024 with "Rockstar" from her full-length debut, Alter Ego.
Lisa also made history as the first K-pop act to perform at the Academy Awards when she took the stage with Doja Cat and Raye as part of a James Bond tribute at the 2025 ceremony - she sang "Live And Let Die."
Lisa starred in season 3 of the HBO series The White Lotus, which aired in 2025. This season was set in her native Thailand, and she spoke a lot of Thai in her role as Mook, a resort employee who compels her suitor to be more ambitious. It was her acting debut.
The Thai native learned to speak several other languages, including English, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. In her 2025 Hot Ones interview, she admitted she has to pay close attention to pronunciation when she's rapping in English or Korean. She has trouble with the "v" sound in English because it's not part of the Thai alphabet, while "s" words throw her off in Korean. Often it takes her a few hours to nail one verse in Korean.

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