Do we like Lisa (Lalisa Manobal)?
Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or acts found, real charity work, and one old stain she has apologised for on the record.
Lisa was born in Buriram province, Thailand, and was dancing in competitions by primary school. At 13 she was the only person picked from more than 4000 hopefuls at YG Entertainment's 2010 Thailand auditions. She moved to Seoul in 2011 and trained for about five years before debuting with Blackpink in August 2016.
The group became the first K-pop girl group to play Coachella in 2019. She launched a solo career in 2021 and started her own management company, Lloud, in 2023. Since then she has become the first K-pop soloist to perform at the MTV VMAs and has made her acting debut on The White Lotus.
The big blot is the leaked trainee video. In 2025, just before her first solo Coachella set, footage surfaced of the then-teenage trainees rapping along to songs that contained the N-word. Lisa has since confirmed the footage is real and said she was upset by when it came out. She told Variety she has to apologise, adding “This is not OK. Seriously.”
Her explanation is that she grew up in Thailand and that “there isn't any education for that”. That is an explanation, not an excuse, and she doesn't pretend otherwise. The documentary reportedly says YG would not let the members release a statement, but we only have the film's own account of that. She is the first of the three to speak publicly about it.
On the harm check, we found no anti-LGBTQ+, anti-woman, anti-vax or climate-denial words or acts from her. Nothing turned up on Trump, immigration or other culture-war fights either. Her recent and upcoming work is with Netflix, HBO and her own company, and we found nothing dodgy in who she makes it with. Her 2024 Global Citizen Festival slot sits alongside Blackpink's climate advocacy.
So: a decent person with one genuine error, owned and apologised for. She has no pattern of harm and plenty of quiet good. We'd keep her on the playlist and watch what she does next.