What's going on with Lisa (BLACKPINK)?

In less than 1 month, Lisa (BLACKPINK) has been continuously involved in a series of scandals.

Among the 4 members of BLACKPINK, the youngest member Lisa is considered the one who has “stirred up” social media the most recently. She is the first to make a solo comeback and is also the first member of the group to release a music product after establishing her own company. However, in less than a month, Lisa has been continuously involved in a series of scandals and has become the center of controversy.

MV not released yet but already accused of cultural appropriation

In mid-June 2024, Lisa made the global fan community “sit on fire” when announcing her solo comeback with the product ROCKSTAR . Every image released to promote the comeback caused social networks to “storm” because of the “hot” image of the youngest member of BLACKPINK.

From the wolf cut hair, the rhinestone-studded teeth to the “rock star” expression, many people were shocked by her unprecedented “transformation”. However, because of these images, Lisa was criticized by a group of netizens for allegedly appropriating black culture.

Promotional image for Lisa’s ROCKSTAR comeback

Accordingly, the poster that Lisa promoted for the MV ROCKSTAR was her image of a personality with brown skin. This made netizens think that she was “blackfishing” (intentionally changing her skin color to look like a person of color). The waves of controversy lasted for many days on social networks and divided into two opposing opinions.

Some people think that she appropriated black culture to shake off the Kpop idol label. However, the majority of opinions refuted, affirming that this is a common concept that the photographer who took pictures of Lisa has taken for many other artists. And of course, they were not criticized for cultural appropriation. Therefore, fans also think that accusing Lisa of cultural appropriation is a one-sided and quite extreme opinion.

Lisa’s unique brown skin image is accused of cultural appropriation

But in fact, many other artists have also taken similar concept photos under the hands of photographer Jack Bridgland.

MV caught in series of plagiarism suspicions

As the first solo music product after 3 years since LALISA – Money and marking the turning point of “going solo”, Lisa and her LLOUD company team certainly invested and prepared carefully. However, ROCKSTAR has been caught up in a series of plagiarism scandals that have caused a stir on social networks.

First of all, the outfit that Lisa wore in the MV was accused by a Chinese designer named Jewel Y of plagiarizing a design that was published in 2020. Specifically, in the new MV, Lisa used a 5-pointed star-shaped leather camisole symbolizing the Rockstar concept in an outfit.

This designer also shared more profound information in another post: Between 2020 and 2023, her products were produced in London and had to be sent for photoshoots abroad. After that, a Korean (or British) stylist borrowed this star shirt from Jewel, stole the idea and started appearing all over social media.

The shirt designed with a 5-pointed star that Lisa wore in the MV…

Accused of plagiarism by a Chinese designer

At its peak, the scene with Lisa and 100 dancers in the MV ROCKSTAR was accused of plagiarism. Specifically, director Gabriel Moses posted on his Instagram account, comparing a scene in Travis Scott’s MV FE!N that he made with Lisa’s ROCKSTAR and stated: “Lisa’s team contacted my editor to ask for this scene. Even though we said no, they still did it.” Up to now, Lisa and her crew have not responded to the incident.

However, Lisa’s fan community has provided evidence to defend, claiming that the concept of filming MVs like the previous ROCKSTAR or FE!N scenes has also been done by many artists and Gabriel Moses – the person who accused Lisa – was not the first person to come up with this idea.

Lisa’s scene with 100 dancers in the MV ROCKSTAR

Accused of plagiarizing a scene in Travis Cott’s MV FE!N

However, Lisa’s fan community pointed out that many artists have done this MV filming concept before.

Solo music products achieved many successes but the effects were not as expected

The MV ROCKSTAR has encountered a lot of controversy after its release, but the appeal of the global idol still helps Lisa reap many impressive achievements. The MV quickly reached 100 million views after 13 days of release, becoming the fastest music product to reach this milestone in 2024 for a solo artist worldwide. The song is also the song with the most streams in 2024 for a Kpop artist on the Billboard Global Excl. US chart with 94.2 million streams.

As of now, ROCKSTAR has also reached 100 million streams on Spotify after 23 days of release. Making Lisa the fastest female Kpop solo artist to achieve this achievement. Previously, Jisoo’s Flower achieved this achievement in 31 days and then Lisa’s Money with 38 days.

Lisa once “flexed” and thanked fans for helping ROCKSTAR reach #1 on the Billboard Global Excl. US chart.

However, in terms of the effect of Lisa’s solo comeback after 3 years, ROCKSTAR did not meet expectations. The song was judged to be “slippery”, with a difficult melody and meaningless lyrics. Compared to Lisa’s two previous solo songs, LALISA and Money , it is clear that ROCKSTAR “lost” in many aspects. Many people also commented that without the hands of YG and producer Teddy, Lisa clearly lost steam in her important “child” that marked a turning point in her career.

ROCKSTAR – solo comeback product after 3 years did not achieve the expected effect

Suddenly caught in drama that fell from the sky when suspected of being a “homewrecker”

Most recently, Chinese social networks suddenly spread rumors that Lisa was the “third wheel” who interfered in other people’s relationships. Accordingly, a TikToker posted a video accusing BLACKPINK’s youngest member of being ambiguous with American male artist Dominic Fike. The two are said to have couple tattoos, openly hugging each other affectionately, Lisa came to support the “boyfriend” at Coachella or Dominic Fike once composed Mona Lisa to give to Lisa… This TikToker even accused Lisa of not only being the “third wheel” once, but at least 3 times of ruining other couples.

Images circulating on Chinese social media with posts accusing Lisa of being a “mistress”

However, the online community quickly refuted and affirmed that this was an extremely “heaven and earth” rumor. Many people thought that Lisa and Dominic Fike had a close friendship, so the two “dared” to publicly post a photo of them hugging each other on social media. After that, the two did not have any interaction, so the rumor at the time of Coachella 2024 was quickly extinguished.

In addition, the song Mona Lisa also made Dominic Fike speak up to deny the rumor that he wrote it for Lisa. Mona Lisa is an extremely famous iconic painting in the art world, so the imposition that Dominic Fike wrote it for BLACKPINK’s youngest member is a baseless rumor. Lisa’s fan community also called on LLOUD company to take strong measures to prevent rumors that cause serious damage to the female idol’s image.