What is T-pop? Thai pop, LISA, MILLI and Thai stars in K-pop

For a lot of people who grew up abroad, the first thing a non-Thai friend ever said about Thailand was a name: LISA. Suddenly classmates who had never asked about your family wanted to know where Buriram was.

That’s T-pop and the Thai stars of K-pop: one of the reasons being Thai got a little cooler at school. Here’s who’s who, with the facts checked.

What is T-pop?

T-pop is short for Thai pop. Wikipedia describes it as the Thai equivalent of pop music, earlier called string, and covering Thai pop, rock, dance and hip hop. For the older generations of Thai music (luk thung, mor lam, songs for life and the string legends) see our guide to Thai music genres.

Since the 2010s, the success of K-pop has inspired many Thai boy and girl groups with ever more complex choreography, Wikipedia notes, naming RS’s Kamikaze label as an earlier example. A newer one: 4EVE, a seven-member girl group picked on the TV survival show Girl Group Star in 2020, which debuted on 23 December 2020.

There’s even a term for Thai pop culture going global: T-Wind, a mirror of the Korean Wave.

Is LISA Thai?

Yes. LISA was born Pranpriya Manobal on 27 March 1997 in Buriram province, in Isan. Some milestones, as listed on Wikipedia:

• August 2016: debuted as a member of BLACKPINK.
• 10 September 2021: released her solo single album Lalisa, which sold 736,221 copies in South Korea in its first week, a record for a female artist there.
• 2024: founded her own company, LLOUD, and released “Rockstar” on 27 June, which won Best K-Pop at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards.
• 2025: made her acting debut as Mook in season 3 of The White Lotus.

Watch her videos on her official channels.

Which other K-pop stars are Thai?

More than many people realise. All facts from each artist’s Wikipedia page:

If you have a cousin who’s a superfan, they may call themselves a ติ่ง (ting), with pride. Let them say it first: about someone else it can sound like teasing. See our Thai slang dictionary for more fandom words.

What happened with MILLI and the mango sticky rice?

On 17 April 2022, Bangkok-born rapper MILLI (Danupha Khanatheerakul) became the first Thai solo artist to perform at Coachella, with 88rising, and she ate mango sticky rice on stage. Wikipedia reports that orders back in Thailand went up, with one Bangkok shop preparing about 30 kg of extra sticky rice. It’s possibly the most Thai thing that has ever happened at a music festival. She was also on the BBC’s 100 Women list in 2022.

How did a BL series help T-pop go global?

Through a theme song. Wikipedia’s Thai pop article credits Jeff Satur’s “Why Don’t You Stay”, from the 2022 series KinnPorsche, with boosting T-pop’s international popularity. Many fans meet Thai music this way, through the series they’re watching. More in our Thai BL guide.

How can T-pop help your Thai?

Pop songs are short, repeated and catchy, which is exactly what a learning ear needs. Pick one song, look up what the chorus means (without copying the lyrics anywhere), and sing it at karaoke with your cousins. That glowing feeling afterwards is ฟิน (fin).

When a friend asks how you’ve been lately, you now have a whole new topic:

ช่วงนี้เป็นไงบ้าง

chuang nii pen ngai baang

Draft: waiting for a native speaker’s review.

Practise replying to this in Reply Thai, coming soon to iPhone.

Reply Thai’s Thai with friends your age moment has the relaxed Thai your cousins actually use, and Thai and proud has a small collection of the music, films and TV you grew up with.

Reply Thai for iPhoneComing soon

Thai words on this page are a draft until a native speaker has reviewed them. We don’t print lyrics; please listen on official channels.