‘The First Time’: Blackpink’s Lisa on Korea, Her Bandmates, and Her Bangs

Lisa (née Lalisa Manobal) discussed her first time visiting Korea and reminisces about meeting her Blackpink bandmates Jennie, Jisoo, and Rosé in the latest installment of Rolling Stone’s The First Time.

“I think I was like, 13? I came with my mom and dad, my family, and I had super short hair like a boy,” she laughs as she recalls when she first visited Korea. Lisa is from Thailand and used a mixture of Thai, Korean, and English in the interview.

She also recalls how she met each member of the group one by one during her training process: “I met Jennie first, and then after that, I met Jisoo and Rosie.” On her first impressions, “I remember Jennie was the only one who said hi to me in English… We were super close… Jisoo, I remember when I first saw her she wore a red hoodie and she came to practice wearing that every day and Rosie had a guitar with her… She’s the same age as me so it was exciting to have a new friend come in.”

With Blackpink, Lisa has toured and performed sold-out shows across the globe, but her first performance was for a school event. “I was like, five… I did a traditional Thai dance. It was fun.” Since then, Lisa has come a long way and she currently boasts the largest Instagram following in all of Korean entertainment, of which she says, “It makes me so happy, but I’m not sure how to express my gratitude… Thank you to all the Blinks around the world.”

On her iconic bangs, she states, “It was my mom’s idea!” and now she recognizes them as part of her signature look. “If you think of Lisa, you’re going to remember the bangs.”

Her first solo album Lalisa is out now and features two tracks, “Lalisa” and “Money.” When she heard the two songs for the first time, she immediately knew she wanted to pursue them for her solo project.