LISA still doesn’t know how she made it into BLACKPINK after her audition — for which she sang an iconic Rihanna hit — didn’t go quite as planned.
In a video interview with Wall Street Journal Magazine published Tuesday (March 4), the K-pop star reflected on her fateful try-out for the quartet that would make her famous. “I sang Rihanna’s song,” she said, singing a little bit of 2008 Billboard Hot 100-topper “Take a Bow” to herself before remembering which track it was.
“I was so nervous, I sang like … the lyrics were all over the place,” LISA added, smiling. “It was not right.”
As for how she managed to make it into the YG Entertainment group alongside bandmates ROSÉ, JISOO and JENNIE despite goofing her audition, the Thai rapper said that she’s still unsure how she landed the gig. “I don’t know,” she told the publication, laughing. “I think maybe I was so unique, or I did something wrong, so they were like, ‘Oh, I remember this girl! She sang wrong lyrics.’”
Don’t let her messing up the lyrics fool you, though. LISA is a diehard fan of the Fenty mogul, telling WSJ Mag that Ri is her biggest inspiration — specifically for “her swag, her style, her music, her stage performance.”
LISA’s interview with the publication — for which she’s also this month’s cover star — comes just a few days after the Feb. 28 release of her debut solo album, Alter Ego. The project was led by singles “Rockstar,” “New Woman” featuring Rosalía, “Moonlit Floor (Kiss Me)” and “Born Again” with Doja Cat and RAYE, with whom the White Lotus star recently performed a medley of James Bond songs at the 2025 Oscars.
Later this year, LISA will reunite with the rest of BLACKPINK for a global tour, the ladies’ first trek since the 2022-23 Born Pink World Tour supporting their Billboard 200 No. 1 album of the same name. In her WSJ Magazine cover story, the “Money” artist reflected further on the years of work all four of the groupmates put in as YG trainees before they ever assembled as a foursome, with LISA revealing that — after about three and a half years of training with no end in sight — she almost lost hope of ever debuting as an artist.
“When you don’t see the future, your future is black, it’s blank, you’re not able to visualize it,” she told the publication. “It’s like you’ve lost your energy a bit.”
Watch LISA talk about her BLACKPINK audition below: