BLACKPINK’s Lisa Considered Going Back to Her Home Country When Things Got Rough

While many K-pop idols are South Korean, a number of them also come from different parts of the world.

BLACKPINK’s Lisa is one of these international idols. Being a K-pop star means leaving one’s home country to pursue a dream. However, there was a time when things were so rough that Lisa considered packing her bags and going back to her family.

Where is BLACKPINK’s Lisa from?

Lisa was born and raised in Thailand. Her birth name was Pranpriya Manoban, though she later changed her legal first name to Lalisa.

Lisa showed interests in performing at a young age. She began dancing as a kid and even took part in many dance competitions.

When she was around 13 years old, Lisa auditioned for YG Entertainment, one of the most well-known K-pop companies. She passed and moved to South Korea to become a trainee.

Lisa considered going back to Thailand when she was a trainee

Moving to another country at a young age can be a tough experience. Lisa has admitted that she struggled a lot as a trainee and even considered simply going back to Thailand.

“Since it was the first time that I traveled away from home, I felt that I was awesome and cool,” she shared on the Chinese show Youth With You. “But after I got there, I found that, actually, it was hard.”

Lisa revealed that she frequently needed to talk to her parents when she first got to South Korea, admitting, “During the first three months, I often called my mom and cried.”

Fortunately, Lisa ended up adjusting better afterwards with the help and support of people around her.

She considered going back to Thailand again a few years later. When she was 18, she found herself in a limbo because she did not know if she was going to debut or not.

“I was stuck in the basement of the company—practicing and practicing—and I didn’t know when I could debut,” she said on another episode of Youth With You. “So I was thinking like, ‘Should I go back to school? Should I go back to Thailand.’”

Once again, Lisa stuck it out, and her perseverance paid off. She ended up debuting in 2016 at the age of 18.

Lisa excelled at many things as a trainee

Being a K-pop trainee can be a grueling experience, but one thing that may have helped Lisa was her ability to excel at various skills.

In BLACKPINK’s Netflix documentary Light Up the Sky, director Caroline Suh noted, “The members mentioned that Lisa aced everything back when they were trainees.”

Meanwhile, member Rosé shared that she was inspired to become a better dancing after seeing Lisa dance.

“I never danced before I became a trainee,” Rosé said on an episode of BLACKPINK’s 2020 show 24/365 With BLACKPINK. “Jennie taught me the basic moves when I first started as a trainee… I had a mental breakdown because we had to do that for months.”

She explained, “But I started wanting to dance well after seeing Lisa dance. She was so good at dancing and I thought, ‘I want to be good just like her.’”