Facts about Lisa Lopes
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CNN looks back over her life and careerLisa "Left-Eye" Lopes
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Lisa Lopes Biography
Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes was one of three members of the popular music group TLC, and a popular R&B star until her untimely death in 2002.
Created in Atlanta, TLC was named for its members’ initials: Lopes, Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Rozanda “Chilli” Thomas.) With its made-for-MTV looks and bawdy attitude, the group was a hit with both R&B and pop music audiences; their gold-selling albums included Ooooooo… On the TLC Tip (1992), CrazySexyCool (1994) and Fanmail (1999).
Squeaky-voiced and aggressively sexy, Lopes was the group’s designated rapper and wild child. Her love affair with pro football player Andre Rison was interrupted in 1994 when Lopes, in a fit of pique, set fire to Rison’s mansion and burned the million-dollar structure to the ground. The couple reunited and were engaged to be married in 2001, but later called off the wedding.
Lopes died in a 2002 auto crash while vacationing in La Cieba, Honduras. Lopes was driving a rental car when she swerved to avoid oncoming traffic; per Wikipedia, “The vehicle rolled several times after hitting two trees, throwing Lopes and three others out of the windows, and finally coming to rest in a ditch at the side of the road. Lopes, at the age of 30, died instantly of ‘fracture of the base of the cranium’ and ‘open cerebral trauma.'” The others in the car survived the accident.
Extra credit
The title CrazySexyCool reportedly referred to Lisa Lopes, Thomas (“Sexy”) and Watkins (“Cool”)… Lisa Lopes’s nickname “Left Eye” came from a boyfriend who thought her left eye was slightly larger than her right, according to a 2002 article on CNN. She also had the eye-catching habit of wearing a condom on the left frame of her eyeglasses during the early days of TLC… Lisa Lopes’s sudden death has been compared to that of singing star Aaliyah, who died in a 2001 plane crash.