Lisa's solo career outside YG Entertainment has been controversial especially after her disappointing performance at the 2024 MTV VMAs this also had people wondering is she fit for the international music scene or is she going to be always overshadowed by her K-pop background although sticking with YG Entertainment would have been the safest Choice Lisa chose to go solo in November 2023 after starting her solo career she founded her label loud and is set to make an appearance on HBO's The White Lotus she also signed with r CA records and released her first song under her new label Rockstar which sparked significant backlash so far people have accused her of black fishing paying Thai shop owners a small amount to close early so she could shoot her music video and engaging in unfair practices like Peola she was also accused of plagiarism by Gabriel Moses the director of Travis Scott's fine who claimed that her team copied one of the scenes he had worked on the first post was made on July 4th when Moses pointed out the similarities he saw between the fan and Rockstar music videos in particular he highlighted a scene from Rockstar that showed Lisa and her dancers dressed in all white which resembled a similar scene in fine the situation escalated when Moses revealed that Lisa's team had actually reached out to his editor first who refused to assist but the scene in question was still used he gave Lisa and her team until the end of July to respond to his complaints before he took any action however by mid August there were no further updates from either side suggesting the issue might have been settled privately Moses has resumed normal posting and Lisa's career seems to be back on track whether the whole thing was resolved or not it put a dark stain on Lisa's career one that still gets pointed out 2 months after the issue was first brought up she gained some positive attention with her release of new woman featuring Rosalia but things took a downturn again after her performance at the VMAs Lisa's BMA appearance was more controversial than one would have thought and it all started from the moment she was nominated Lisa received four nominations at the award show best K-pop best choreography best editing and best art Direction while her solo career had been success uccessful up to that point the nominations caused a bit of a commotion one of the issues was the timing Rockstar came out on June 28th but the VMA eligibility window closed on June 20th leaving many confused as to how the song even qualified however the biggest problem was that the entire song was in English yet it was nominated for best K-pop people were quick to point out that Lisa wasn't Korean and that the song didn't even fit the typical K-pop mold so why was Rockstar even being considered for the award the commotion only grew when Lisa actually ended up winning the award B over songs like BTS John cook7 NCT dream smoothie stray kids la la la la new jeene super shy and txt's Deja Vu with this win she also became the first soloist in vma's history to win the best K-pop award twice Lisa expressed her heartfelt appreciation in her acceptance speech acknowledging the significance of Rockstar as a special project following Lisa she thanked her labels and her fans for their continuous support emphasizing how much the award meant to her this win as historic as it was for Lisa started a lot of debates over how someone could win a K-pop Award with a song that isn't even K-pop a Twitter user said no hate to Lisa but she made her official solo debut under her own label she created her label to be Global she's not even making K-pop music anymore how did she win well that's the fault of the award shows rather than Lisa normally the song would be in best pop but considering that Western award shows have a tendency to shove Asian artists into the K-pop box even when their music doesn't fit it's not surprising that both Rockstar and John Cook 7 were included instead of truly recognizing these artists impact on the music world putting seven and Rockstar in the best K-pop category seems like a way to sidestep giving them proper acknowledgement in more mainstream categories the most plausible explanation is that the VMAs realized k-pop's huge appeal so they know that nominating K-pop artists will draw in viewers as fans are likely to tune in just as soon as their favorite artist name is involved however keeping K-pop separate from mainstream categories limits these artists chances to compete with other big names in the industry even if they deserve it the real controversy around Lisa's VMA appearance wasn't just the nomination or the win it was her performance which some people felt fell short of expectations at the event Lisa took the stage for a solo performance delivering a mix of new woman and rock star alongside a group of dancers Lisa often praised as one of blackpink's standout performers had high expectations surrounding her performance however based on the reactions it seems many were left disappointed first there was a lot of criticism over Lisa allegedly lipsyncing at the performance the backlash didn't even come from K-pop stands but from International viewers who were confused as to why Lisa couldn't sing live especially when the song wasn't challenging to perform some nison went as far as saying Lisa didn't even try to lip sync properly barely moving her lips to the song One commenter expressed disappointment noting they didn't expect her to sing live but had hoped for a strong stage presence and captivating choreography instead they found the performance lacking in both areas suggesting she struggled to bring the same energy without the other members another user mentioned that Lisa was pretty bad to be honest if you're going to lipsing do it with energy and dynamism which was missing she was sluggish the whole performance the feedback from online users paled in comparison to the harsher criticism she received from media outlets for example billboard ranked all the performances of the night and in their opinion Lisa's was the worst their review pointed out that her solo performance didn't quite hit the mark this time despite Lisa's past success with choreography and visuals they mentioned that new woman felt lacking in energy and while Rock Star had solid choreography it didn't leave much of an impact the New York Post went even further naming her performance the worst of the night and delivering even more scathing criticism than billboard they commented that after Paris Hilton introduced Lisa with her signature line that's hot Lisa's performance was anything but impressive they went on to say this K-pop singer was more of a k flop when she performed with an army of dancers who couldn't save her from the pure cheesiness that left us all wondering how she even got the invite following these reviews many argued that the performance was disappointing they stated that Lisa should have treated it as an international stage rather than just acting like she was performing on a music show and should not have relied entirely on lip-syncing critics also mentioned her stage presence and energy were lacking suggesting she might have counted on the dancers to carry the performance instead of bringing more effort herself it seems like people have generally agreed that the reason why Lisa is failing to break in the west despite the fact that she's considered a strong performer in Korea is because the standards are very different in the two industries in Korea excelling as a per former and being decent in other areas is often enough for Idols to succeed but internationally just having a good stage presence isn't enough to stand out or capture the attention of a broader audience beyond the K-pop Community some also argued that Lisa had dumbed down the choreography to make it more Tik Tok friendly and that she seemed uncomfortable on stage they suggested that she struggled with performing solo after being used to sharing the spotlight with three other people especially during stage transitions someone compared Lisa to performers like Britney Spears noting that when Britney lipsing in the past she at least managed to give an energetic and emotional performance they suggested Lisa might need more training and practice before performing live again which isn't something she would hear if she was still active as an idol or as a member of blackpink Western artists often lip sync too but commenters argue they do it more subtly and know when to sing live versus when to lips sync Lisa's fans however feel that both critics and the public are being overly tough on her attendees at the event shared videos of the performance with fans insisting that Lisa's vocals were heard clear clearly sure the backtrack was a bit loud but you could still hear Lisa singing a fan even wrote crazy how she sounds exactly the same as the track like I wouldn't blame them if they thought she was lip-syncing many of her fans pointed fingers at the VMAs for how the performance turned out they said the backing track was too loud drowning her actual voice and criticized the camera work for missing key moments of the choreography making her stage presence appear weaker a Twitter user noted that the camera often zoomed out focusing more on Lisa walking around rather than the details of her performance in these conditions it's no wonder that her performance looks so not Lisa we're used to seeing her command the stage whether she was alone or surrounded by dancers so watching the VMA performance was as if we were watching someone completely new Lisa and her team haven't commented on the criticism but it seems she was too busy enjoying the night to worry about it she dazzled in various gorgeous and expensive outfits took the stage at an award show as a nony artist for the first time and even spent time with Popeye contia she's clearly focused on having fun and expanding her music career with new songs and collaborations so the reactions to her performance were probably the last thing on her mind