Debuting as part of YG Entertainment’s 2016 nascent girl group project, nobody could have anticipated where the life of superstardom would have taken Buriram-born Lalisa Manobal, otherwise most famously known by the mononym of Lisa from BLACKPINK.
Born Pranpriya Manobal before later changing her name to ‘Lalisa’, meaning ‘the one to be praised’, under the advice of a fortune teller, the globally recognised singer and rapper has genuinely lived up to her moniker with her long list of accolades, including becoming the most-followed K-pop artist of all time on Instagram since 2019 with 94.4 million followers.
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With that said, a strong case can be made that it wasn’t just by merit of divine intervention that had played a significant part in Lisa’s enormous success, for the 26-year-old has always proven to be a true talent from the get-go even without the backing of one of South Korea’s largest entertainment conglomerates.
Turn back the clock 14 years ago to Thailand, and a 12-year-old Lalisa Manobal could be seen making perhaps one of her earliest appearances on a commercial project via a music video that was meant to serve as part of a promotional campaign for the province of Nakhon Sawan in Thailand.
In spite of its obscurity and 240p quality, the clip quickly began trending within K-Pop circles after Lisa was identified as one of the participating dancers that performed in the festive four-minute-twenty-seven-second New Year jingle. Sporting clean and precise dance moves, her star power is readily apparent throughout her sparse appearances throughout the music video.
Of course, Lisa is now no stranger to the spotlight as both a member of BLACKPINK and a respectable solo artist in her own right, as evidenced by the roaring triumph of her debut, self-titled album Lalisa which was released in September of 2021. For her work in the album, she received the MTV Award for Best K-Pop Video for the lead single from the album and also became the first K-Pop artist in history to nab an MTV Europe Award.
At present, Lisa is on tour with BLACKPINK as part of their Born Pink World Tour, which is slated to end by August 26. She last performed in Malaysia with the group in March of this year.
Feature and hero image credits: lalalalisa_m/Instagram
This story first appeared on Lifestyle Asia Kuala Lumpur
