Lisa

Lisa’s story begins far from the glittering stages of Seoul. She was born on March 27, 1997, in Buriram province, Thailand, as Pranpriya Manobal, an only child raised by her Thai Buddhist mother and her Swiss stepfather, a professionally trained chef. From the age of four, dance became her main outlet. Her family enrolled her in formal dance lessons after noticing how naturally she gravitated toward performing, and by her early teenage years she was already competing in local talent shows and joining a Thai dance crew called We Zaa Cool, where she became close friends with a young trainee who would later debut as a member of GOT7.

By 2010, Lisa had set her sights on a career in the Korean entertainment industry, inspired by groups like BigBang and 2NE1. She auditioned for YG Entertainment’s Thailand casting call and was the only person selected out of roughly 4,000 applicants. According to widely repeated accounts, she and her mother later visited a fortune teller who suggested changing her name for better luck, which is how Pranpriya became Lalisa, meaning “the one being praised.” In 2011, at just 14 years old, she moved to South Korea alone to begin training, becoming YG’s first non-ethnically-Korean trainee. The adjustment was difficult: she had to learn Korean from scratch while living far from home, and she spent roughly five years in intensive training before her debut.

During her trainee years, Lisa appeared as a backup dancer in BigBang member Taeyang’s 2013 music video for “Ringa Linga” and modeled for several YG-affiliated brands. On August 8, 2016, she officially debuted as a member of BLACKPINK alongside Jisoo, Jennie, and Rosé, taking on the roles of main dancer, lead rapper, sub-vocalist, and the group’s youngest member. The quartet’s debut single album, “Square One,” featuring “Whistle” and “Boombayah,” topped South Korean charts and signaled the arrival of a new global powerhouse.

BLACKPINK’s rise throughout the late 2010s was rapid. After signing a global partnership between YG Entertainment and Interscope Records in 2018, the group expanded aggressively into Western markets, scoring entries on the Billboard Hot 100 with “DDU-DU DDU-DU” and “Kill This Love.” Lisa kept building her own personal brand during this period too, launching her YouTube channel Lilifilm Official in 2018 to share travel and dance content, and later serving as a dance mentor on the Chinese survival shows “Youth With You” in 2020 and 2021. One of her dance clips even sparked a viral meme in 2020 that drew participation from celebrities including Dolly Parton and Stephen Colbert.

Lisa’s solo era officially began on September 10, 2021, with the single album “Lalisa.” The title track shattered YouTube’s 24-hour viewing record for a solo artist, while the album’s surprise hit B-side, “Money,” eventually became the first song by a K-pop solo artist to surpass one billion streams on Spotify. She followed this with the multilingual collaboration “SG,” featuring DJ Snake, Ozuna, and Megan Thee Stallion. Over the next two years, Lisa’s individual accomplishments piled up: she became the first K-pop soloist to win an MTV Video Music Award and an MTV Europe Music Award, earned a string of Guinness World Records, performed at the Crazy Horse cabaret in Paris, and in November 2023 received an honorary MBE from King Charles III alongside her BLACKPINK bandmates for the group’s environmental advocacy work.

A turning point came in early 2024. After BLACKPINK renewed their group contract with YG Entertainment but chose not to renew individual solo contracts, Lisa launched her own management company, LLOUD, and partnered with RCA Records to release solo music under full ownership of her masters. Her comeback single “Rockstar” arrived in June 2024 and became her first number-one hit on the Billboard Global Excl. US chart, setting a new tone of creative independence. She followed it with “New Woman” featuring Rosalía and “Moonlit Floor (Kiss Me),” debuted via a surprise performance at the Global Citizen Festival, and embarked on a five-stop Asian fan meetup tour later that year.

2025 turned out to be Lisa’s biggest year yet outside of music. In February, she released “Born Again” featuring Doja Cat and Raye, then made her acting debut under her legal name, Lalisa Manobal, as the character Mook in Season 3 of HBO’s “The White Lotus.” Days later, she dropped her debut studio album, “Alter Ego,” which entered the top ten of the Billboard 200 and spawned hits like “Fxck Up the World” featuring Future. That spring she became the first K-pop artist to perform at the Academy Awards and returned to Coachella as a headlining-caliber solo act. She kept the momentum going by joining Maroon 5 on “Priceless,” releasing “When I’m with You” with Tyla, and premiering a short film for “Dream.” By the end of the year, she had signed with talent agency WME for acting representation and Wasserman Music for global touring, landed a film role in Netflix’s “Tygo” (a spin-off of the “Extraction” franchise), and was confirmed for a follow-up Netflix romantic comedy inspired by “Notting Hill.”

Entering 2026, Lisa continued bridging music, fashion, and film. She appeared on the red carpet and as a presenter at the Golden Globes in January, became a house ambassador for Nike, and announced “Viva La Lisa,” making history as the first K-pop artist to headline a Las Vegas concert residency. In April, she teamed up with electronic producer Anyma on “Bad Angel” and made a surprise appearance at Coachella to perform it live. In May, she joined Brazilian star Anitta and Nigerian artist Rema on “Goals,” the official anthem of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and the trio headlined the tournament’s opening ceremony in Los Angeles in June — making Lisa the first female K-pop act and first Thai artist ever to do so. Meanwhile, BLACKPINK as a group wrapped their massive “Deadline” World Tour in January 2026 after 81 shows across three continents and released their long-awaited third EP, “Deadline,” that February, just ahead of the group’s 10th anniversary in August 2026.

Beyond music and acting, Lisa has built one of the most valuable personal brands in entertainment. She has served as a global ambassador for Celine since 2020, for Bulgari since 2020, and for Louis Vuitton since 2024, in addition to endorsement deals with brands ranging from MAC Cosmetics to Adidas to Nike. She has also used her platform for cultural diplomacy, being honored by Thailand’s Ministry of Culture as a cultural ambassador leader and inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame in 2023. Whether on a Bangkok soundstage, a Las Vegas residency stage, or a World Cup opening ceremony, Lisa’s career arc reflects a consistent throughline: a trainee who once struggled to communicate in a new language has become one of the most recognizable performers on the planet.