Blackpink’s La Lisa wins Best K-pop for Born Again at 2025 VMAs; sparks fan outrage: ‘This is not K-pop?’
The 2025 MTV Video Music Awards delivered all the spectacle viewers expected. Hosted at UBS Arena in New York on September 7, the night was filled with energetic performances and heartfelt tributes. But no awards ceremony would be complete without controversy, and this year, it came from the Best K-Pop category.
The award went to Born Again, the collaboration between Doja Cat, RAYE, and Blackpink’s Lisa. While the track itself has been praised as a chart-topping banger, many fans were quick to argue it shouldn’t have even been in the category. The song is entirely in English, two of its stars aren’t Korean, and Lisa, though a member of Blackpink, is Thai. For many, this stretched the definition of what K-pop is supposed to be.
The competition in the category was tough: Jisoo’s Earthquake, Jennie’s Like Jennie, Rosé’s Toxic Till the End, BTS’ Jimin’s Who, Stray Kids’ Chk Chk Boom, and aespa’s Whiplash were all in the running. Yet Lisa still managed to snag her third VMA win in four years in the category.
Critics were upset
Online, however, fans didn’t hold back their frustration. “.. the concept of a western song sung by a thai, british and american artist, released by a UK label winning best k-pop song. It was a banger though. I genuinely thought it would go to an actual k-pop song,” said one comment on Reddit. Another weighed in, “Sorry but that’s just simply not a Kpop song lol, ignorant of MTV to place it in that category.”
Others were even more blunt: “This was not a kpop song 💀.” Another user argued, “tbh genuinely anything else deserved in this specific category considering not a single thing about this song is kpop😭.” More added to the chorus: “How is this song considered a kpop song 😭 tbh, none of the songs nominated should’ve been nominated in a kpop category except for Whiplash bc they’re all in English.” Another simply said, “Bruh the category doesn’t even make sense the song was all English.” And yet another wrote, “This isn’t a Kpop song. Shouldn’t have even been in the category.”
The criticism also touched on how Western music media continues to mishandle the category: “The song classification wasn’t ridiculous to the VMAs? I actually feel bad for these soloists from Kpop groups because these shows (and clearly the wider western music media) clearly want to type cast their work. Lisa isn’t even Korean mind you 😭😭.”
Lisa’s acceptance speech
Still, Lisa herself seemed thrilled to take the award home, thanking her collaborators and fans. “I’m so honoured to be receiving this award,” Lisa said. “I want to thank MTV and VMAs for all the love and support. Thank you to Doja Cat and RAYE for making Born Again such a special song, and to [my] RCA Family and Team LLOUD, thank you for helping me to get to where I am today. And lastly, to Lilies and Blinks, I couldn’t have done it without you guys, so thank you and I love you.”
