BLACKPINK’s Lisa’s Former Vocal Coach From Thailand Reveals What She Was Like Before Debut
BLACKPINK’s Lisa is known internationally as one of the most talented dancers and performers in Asia.
But what was she like before her fiery debut with BLACKPINK?
To answer this question, Lisa’s former vocal coach Kru Koy recently did an interview with MGR Online about her career and about teaching Lisa.
In addition to Lisa, Kru Koy has been the vocal coach of some of Thailand’s most famous singers. While she is a talented and strict instructor, her fondness of Lisa shines through the interview.
She states that while Lisa had many teachers beforehand, she was Lisa’s last teacher before she passed her audition for YG Entertainment.
She recalls Lisa’s energetic and bright personality, which doesn’t seem to have disappeared at all after all these years.
Lisa was shining since the beginning. She was a cheerful girl. I’ve never seen her sad, she always had a smile on her face.
Kru Koy recalls Lisa’s early tomboyish style where she always sported red chunky sneakers. At one point, she had even cut her hair short to a pixie cut.
Lisa also introduced Kru Koy to another future Thai idol, GOT7’s Bambam but back then he was much younger and smaller than he is now. Kru Koy revealed that Lisa recommended for Bambam to take a class with her, showing how impressed Lisa was with her vocal coach’s teaching.
Kru Koy recalled how close Lisa and Bambam are. As most fans know, both were involved in a Thai dance group as children.
They looked like siblings. They grew up together so there’s no chance that they would end up falling for each other.
Back then, Lisa was nicknamed “Pok Pak” and while she certainly had a fun personality, Kru Koy noted that she was incredibly hard-working.
That time she was called Pok Pak. I like the name. It sounds fidgety just like her. Who would reject a mischievous bubbly girl like her? But she also gave me full participation. Like when she was preparing for an audition, she gave it her all. She danced and sang like it was her last.
But even from a young age, Lisa was highly interested in K-Pop and was determined to become a trainee. Although Kru Koy was worried her goal was too high, she didn’t want to say anything as she didn’t want to ruin Lisa’s dreams.
In 2010, YG Entertainment announced they would be holding their first global auditions in Thailand. Lisa was determined to prepare a spectacular audition. While her dancing was superb, she knew that her singing needed some improvement so she and Kru Koy began meeting more regularly.
Kru Koy trained Lisa to improve her singing. While Lisa was stable, Kru Koy wanted to encourage Lisa to bring out the emotion and mood in her singing. Additionally, Kru Koy challenged Lisa to become more versatile as a singer, training her in practising fast, energetic songs and slow, moody songs.
Lisa’s diligence and determination shone through as she consistently followed her vocal coach’s advice and completed all her assignments.
Eventually, this hard work finally paid off as Lisa successfully sang and danced for her audition to become the only person who was accepted at the YG Entertainment auditions in Thailand.
Undoubtedly, Kru Koy and Lisa were both ecstatic that Lisa was able to achieve her long-standing dream thanks to Lisa’s fierce determination.
When Lisa moved from Thailand to South Korea, Kru Koy recalls that this trainee period of six years was hard for Lisa. She stated that people Lisa’s age could guarantee themselves to finish university within six years. But for Lisa, everything was unpredictable and nothing was truly certain about whether she would debut as an idol.
During those times, I guess she might have thought of going back from time to time because things were uncertain.
“Will I debut? Will I not? What if they cancel and I have to go back?”
Although Lisa was worried about whether she would debut, she continued to push herself and refine her skills. Kru Koy recalls that when she first arrived in South Korea, she didn’t know any Korean so she had to start from scratch, working herself to become more fluent in the language.
She had to learn new things, make new friends, live in a new environment … In her training days, Lisa was still a cheerful girl like before. When she came back, she was lively but I knew when I talked to her mom that she was discouraged. It had been too long.
Thankfully, Lisa was able to debut as the main dancer and lead rapper of BLACKPINK in 2016 and the group has experienced massive success since their debut.
However, Kru Koy notes that despite her fame and success, Lisa never forgets her roots and remains the humble and bright individual she was before she was even a trainee.
She is a lovely girl who carries high determination. A ball of sunshine who can be happy in whatever she does.
I like that she never forgets she is Thai. She introduces Thai culture anywhere she goes. She properly shows Thai greeting to her elders. If she is happy, she will jump up and hug you but after that, she will greet you.
Lisa in particular, continues to show her affection and gratitude to Kru Koy, whenever she comes to Thailand.
There were moments she showed that she cared about me. She sent me some fruits, reiterating her mom to hurry before the fruits lose its freshness.
However, Lisa never lost her mischievous sense of fun with her former teacher, continuing to call her “kab kab” which is a spoken polite term in Thai for a male. Lisa even called Kru Koy “kab kab” when she signed her BLACKPINK album.
To Teacher Koy (Kru Koy) – Kru Koy kruuub. Love Kru Koy kruuub.
Krub – same as Ka but for men
Lisa longer the sound to kruuub to make it more cute/naughty pic.twitter.com/JYyXE500Xa— lisa💔 (@hypemnb) January 15, 2019
However, given that Kru Koy is well experienced in teaching celebrities, Kru Koy offered some important advice for Lisa as a celebrity.
I taught her that when she rises to fame, everything looks all great … But when the tables turn, you’ll have to accept it and live on … one day if things change, it would be hard. But if you understand this and can move on, your life will be happy.
While fame can be fickle and unpredictable, one thing is for certain and that is Lisa will continue to uphold her values and foundation as a person.
Kru Koy finished off the interview by encouraging Lisa to always stay true to herself.
I taught her to treat her team nicely. It doesn’t mean to lose herself. She just has to be herself. Her mom also told her that it’s the best to be her true self. She is strong considering what she went through in the past.
Kru Koy and Lisa continue to be in contact and Lisa continually shows her gratitude for her formal teacher, regularly visiting her whenever she is in Thailand.
Kru Koy for her part has been incredibly supportive of Lisa’s career and has been spotted supporting her former student at the BLACKPINK concert in Bangkok.
With amazing teachers like these, it is no wonder that Lisa is such a talented and warm person!
