Lisa Lopes's Real Name: Lisa Lopes

Quick answer: The singer and rapper was known professionally as Lisa Lopes and as Left Eye. AllMusic lists the alias Lisa Nicole Lopes and gives the birth date May 27, 1971, in Philadelphia, and the death date April 25, 2002, in La Ceiba, Honduras. A Guardian obituary independently records Lisa Lopes, born May 27, 1971, in Philadelphia, and the death date April 25, 2002, and says she died at 30 in a car crash while in Honduras. The longer form Lisa Nicole Lopes is not independently confirmed in the Guardian account used here.

Real name and early life

AllMusic's fact box lists the birth as May 27, 1971, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the alias Lisa Nicole Lopes. The Guardian independently identifies her as Lisa Lopes, the Philadelphia-born member of the American R&B group TLC, and its closing line gives 27 May 1971. Neither of those accounts develops a detailed childhood narrative beyond that birthplace, and the sources used here do not independently agree on a longer legal name.

Career highlights

AllMusic and the Guardian both identify her as a member of TLC and name later hits including "Waterfalls," "Creep," and "No Scrubs." AllMusic discusses the group's 1994 album CrazySexyCool and later work, and the Guardian independently says those songs, including the American number ones "Creep" and "No Scrubs," helped secure TLC a place in pop history and that the group later won four Grammy Awards. The Guardian also names her later solo album Supernova. AllMusic independently records a later posthumous solo album, Eye Legacy (2009), and the later TLC album 3D (2002). Both accounts also record an official 1994 outcome: AllMusic says she was sentenced to five years of probation after a fire at the home of then-boyfriend Andre Rison, and the Guardian independently says she received five years' probation after pleading guilty in connection with that fire.

Death

AllMusic records her death on April 25, 2002, in a car accident in La Ceiba, Honduras, at age 30. The Guardian independently records the same date and age and says she died in a car crash; it places her in Honduras at the time of her death, where it says she often holidayed and did voluntary work with a child development centre, without naming La Ceiba in its closing line.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Lisa Lopes, Left Eye, or Lisa Nicole Lopes are looking for the same singer and rapper. AllMusic records the longer form Lisa Nicole Lopes; the Guardian account used here uses Lisa Lopes and Left Eye.