Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Lisa is the latest member of the K-Pop band Blackpink to test positive for the steroid in Asia
A member of the K-Pop girl group Blackpink has tested positive for a steroid.
“Lisa” of the group said in a video statement that she knew she had taken anabolic steroids in her younger days.
Reports have suggested that more K-Pop bands could be affected in the future.
In 2016, a member of SM Entertainment – the Korean label of Blackpink – also tested positive for the substance.
In his statement, Lisa said that she had unknowingly taken the illegal steroid prednisolone in her formative years.
“After I figured out this was not a good idea, I didn’t take it again,” she said.
The singer, whose real name is Joanne Kang, said that the group decided to keep her name off its new album, which is due for release on 27 August.
The exact date of her first test has not been revealed.
According to a report in the Korea Herald, a 60-minute live recording of Blackpink’s concert in Seoul in July ended with the group singing: “Do you want more Lisa?”
Another member, Soobin, was also implicated in the misstep.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Soobin is also reported to have tested positive for the substance
The two were photographed together at the airport last month after completing training in Canada, the report said.
In 2016, a member of the band Wonder Girls tested positive for the drug. She was also said to have a hysterectomy the same year to deal with some symptoms of the drug.
The drug use by K-Pop stars has drawn the attention of South Korean authorities.
In January 2018, two women who performed in China’s K-Pop group BTS were kicked out of the country for allegedly carrying an undisclosed illegal substance.
K-Pop has become a huge success in Asia, having sold 10.5m copies of its albums in Korea alone since 2016.
Image copyright BTS Image caption BTS songs are hugely popular in Asia
In a tweet in 2015, musician Justin Bieber called it “the biggest, most exciting part of my career”.
But there have been concerns over K-Pop’s success and its effect on many.
In 2012, two rival girls bands, SM Entertainment’s BIGBANG and YG Entertainment’s Super Junior, clashed in a brawl.
After the incident, in 2013, a Seoul district court banned K-Pop bands from performing at a major festival unless they were sponsored.
Image copyright Vogue
BTS, aka Band IBBIY, has won awards and biggest hits in the region since its official debut in 2011. It made history in July 2017 when they became the first K-Pop group to get a number one on the US Billboard Hot 100.
But the band has also been criticised for their messages of feminism, the use of gender theory and bisexuality in their lyrics, and images of the female performers with makeup, make-up and revealing clothes.
Image copyright Blackpink Image caption Lisa is the latest in a series of K-Pop acts to test positive for a steroid
Many of their songs are sung in a standard Korean dialect, while their original songs have more Western influences.
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