in the world of K-pop one name resonates louder than most Lisa manobal a girl from Thailand who dominated the K-pop music scene from her humble beginnings in Thailand to becoming the most influential K-pop Idol on social media this is the story of how Lisa dominated the industry Lisa was born in Thailand on March 27th 1997 her parents named her PR PR manin in an interview one of Lisa's relatives revealed that her name was changed when she was a child and the reason her name was changed may surprise you it was all because of a fortune teller the family decided to change her name to Lisa manin and it was a very fitting Choice given that the meaning of Lisa is often translated as one who is praised the fortune teller knew their stuff it all started when she watched a K-pop Idol perform in Thailand the Idol's powerful performance and energy captivated her so much that she vowed to debut herself as was an idol one day in her own words I remember the moment I first fell in love with dance the first time I watched a K-pop Idol perform in Thailand is still Vivid in my mind captivated by the powerful performance and its energy I decided to learn how to dance and pursue my dream of being a singer Lisa's love for music naturally grew as she was fascinated by music and dancing after starting dance classes at the age of four Lisa competed regularly in dance contests throughout her childhood many may not know that Lisa was part of the dance crew weak along with got7's bamb bam and then she was the only person to pass the Thailand auditions for YG Entertainment in 2010 and moved to Korea at the age of 14 to achieve her dream which wasn't easy at all for Lisa in an interview with rolling stone she shared there would be times when I'd say I just want to go back to school lease his time as a training under YG Entertainment was most difficult among the black pink girls she didn't know the Korean language and nobody was allowed to speak to her in English and then the debut plans kept being pushed back and back and they couldn't see the end of this Lisa shared she used to often think when was this going to end like when do we have to get tested every single month at one point Lisa told her mother she wanted to quit or I told her I want to quit at that time Lisa's mom stopped her from doing that thankfully my mom would say think about your situation how many kids want to be in your place if you give up and come home do you think you can have a normal life you're just going to try again you're here now just hold on until the end Lisa shares how her mother was the biggest fan at home when she used to dance to the CDs her mom would buy her mother's dream was to be an actress she couldn't be an actress but made her daughter the biggest K-pop Star in the world her rigorous training period was filled with challenges but her dedication and talent stood out and finally in August 2016 Lisa debuted as one of four members of blackpink and as the first non-ethnic Korean to debut under the agency their debut album Square One contained the songs boombaya and whistle the single reached number one on the billboard World digital songs chart making black pink the fastest act to ever do so and only the third Korean artist to reach the Accolade despite the initial success things didn't get easier for Lisa her real struggle of being a K-pop Idol just started Lisa besides being a good rapper and a dancing machine which the title was given to her for her dancing skills wasn't enough be to Love by many fans Lisa faced extreme racism online by netizens although racism toward non- Korean Idols is nothing new it's been noticed that Lisa's case is the first of its kind that blew up so big and persisted for so long according to a survey of 210 foreign residents conducted by the national Human Rights Commission 44.7% of respondents said discrimination based on race exists in Korea and 47.7% said ethnicity based discrimination prevails in the country Korean social distance toward people from different countries has not changed greatly in the past 10 years wrote Kim coko a sociology professor at Soul National University in a 2019 report both in 2008 and 2018 Koreans were most inclusive toward Americans and Europeans while they considered being most distanced from the Chinese and Southeast Asians racism in Korea is is a normal feature of society and is embedded within systems and institutions Kim said following Lisa's appearance at the 2018 Golden Disc Awards a hateful nison left a comment that read with makeup on she looks like a Russian elf girl if she dyes her hair BL and washes off her makeup she's nothing but a tie girl correct me if I'm wrong but uh I think this was the first time in Kpop that International fans became so vocal Against Racism in Korea in response the media and fans of kylander said Korea must stop being racist toward Southeast Asians the pr head of a Thai entertainment agency joined on the discussion and said major Korean entertainment agencies such as SM and jyp have had members from Southeast Asia before but for YG Lisa is the first on top of that Lisa isn't the mixed blood but she's completely Southeast Asian in the past even when Korean agencies selected for foreign members they lean toward those with similar features such as Japanese and Chinese people so when YG selected Lisa as their first four member the K-pop fandom must have been shocked in response a manager of a different Thai entertainment agency joined in and said Korean stars must have plastic surgery and provide favors due to the country's egotism it's common for foreign stars to not be properly compensated while the Korean stars go off making a lot of money this was known before but having a current star's name mentioned is what Drew so much attention they also added that the Korean Society must acknowledge that such racism exists they stress that Korea has been known to strongly favor Koreans Japanese Chinese and mixed blood of Caucasian origin but now that K-pop is a global phenomenon they shouldn't be so exclusive even fellow K-pop Star Bam Bam of got s spoke up in lease's defense and added some people are like that but there are way more people who love Lisa in response to this fans from all over the world started the hashtag respect Lisa movement and spoke up about the racism issue that is still rampant in Korea this was the time when Lisa found the strength that made her this big Today l is one of the most dedicated fandoms in the history of K-pop that's Lisa's biggest achievement to make sure nothing goes against her if something bad happens they make sure apolog iiz to Lisa Trends globally now Lisa had achieved what needed to be a K-pop veggas Star in the history a diart fandom who was ready to protect the black pinks magneet at all time Lisa checked all the boxes to be a global star easily but really does a day go by in K-pop fandom Brewing another bad thing happens to Lisa she got death threats and fans caught wind earlier than YG and entertainment did in May 2020 many blinks were worried when Lisa received multiple death threats on the May 7th 2020 B Thai Embassy and soul posted on its official Twitter account saying we received a lot of emails and Twitter messages regarding a personal threat posed to Lisa but who alerted the embassy to the situation in the first place not Lisa's agency YG Entertainment but her fans many of them reported the death threats to the Thai Embassy in Soul after the embassy got in touch with YG Entertainment the agency made an official statement reassuring everyone that they were prioritizing the safety and protection of their artists saying we will collect and review evidence through regular monitoring data as well as tip offs from fans and take a hardly response without leniency the agency's reaction might have been too little too late however even its strongly worded statement wasn't enough to shake off fans criticisms that y wasn't doing enough for Lisa 2020 was a harsh year for many of us but it was particularly hard on Lisa right after getting death threats in May she got scammed out of 1 billion W around $833,000 United States dollar by her manager in June he gambled her money away when he was supposed to be helping her with the real estate investment during an interview between Lisa's team and chosen newspaper it was revealed that the manager had been employed at YG for a long time and that he worked very closely with bpink even before their debut in 2016 the interviews also suggested that Lisa might have been targeted as she was the only member of blackpink who didn't have family nearby to help her in fact she left her home country to pursue her career when she was just 14 which left her in an even more vulnerable position YG released yet another official announcement saying they would take preventive measures so that this does not happen again and yet again the agency was criticized for not catching the problem earlier egg entertainment was criticized over and over again for mistreating Lisa was pushed into the background in YG's own promotions for blackpink getting blurred out in some images and even rendered almost invisible in others and giving Lisa the worst outfits this became a never-ending discussion among blinks and that when Lisa's fandom became stronger and stronger every day fans felt the need to protect Lisa and fans emotional investment a significant amount of time money and emotional energy into Lisa this investment leads to a heightened sense of loyalty and protectiveness when they perceive their Lisa is being mistreated they may feel personally attacked prompting a strong defensive response in summary the protective behavior of fans towards their favorite K-pop Idols is driven by a combination of parasocial relationships social identity emotional investment in group dynamics heroism cognitive dissonance and perceived reciprocity these factors not only enhance individual loyalty but also contribute to the formation of a strong DieHard fandom with the release of her single Lisa in late 2021 Lisa became the third member of blackpink to debut with a solo album the song Set A record as the most viewed YouTube music video by a solo artist within 24 hours amassing 73.6 million views in 2022 Lisa added three more titles to her collection from the Guinness World Records she became the first K-pop solo artist to win at the MTV video music award in addition to these accolades Lisa also achieved the title of most Instagram followers for a K-pop artist this made her the 38th most followed account on the platform with Cristiano Ronaldo leading at 538 million followers in May Lisa was awarded the Guinness record for becoming the fastest K-pop female soloist to reach 1 billion streams on Spotify with her tracks money with these Milestones Lisa became the K-pop soloist with the most Guinness World Records surpassing others during the born ping tour her performances captivated audiences demonstrating her powerful stage presence that sets her apart in the group despite some criticism from nison claiming she was trying to overshadow her group Lisa remained focused on her passion for performing a newfound confidence was evident in Lisa following her successful solo debut she continued to break barriers making bold artistic choices such as performing at Crazy Horse despite facing criticism blackpink members showed unwavering support for Lisa as she expressed herself creatively furthermore Lisa along with her black pink bandmates received honorary memberships of the order of of the British Empire bees from King Charles in recognition of their role as cop26 advocates at the cope through six Summit in Glasgow 2021 and just when we thought Lisa couldn't get any more iconic she wrapped up her 7-year contract with YG Entertainment and went solo in the best way possible she founded her own label loud and made a killer comeback with her new track Rockstar starting a new era with Lisa's Journey from a traine from Thailand to a global Superstar and now a lab a Founder is just mind-blowing she's breaking barriers left and right and it's so inspiring to see her doing things her way now some people might think she's overrated but maybe they should take another look at her journey Lisa's stories proof that with Talent hard work and a whole lot of passion you can achieve anything