Everyone in India comprehends or has heard about K-pop music. On Thursday, India discovered its first K-pop star, an 18-year-old girl from Odisha. This youngster was named the fifth member of the prominent south Korean band “Blackswan” Apart from Sriya Lenka, 19-year-old girl Gabriela Dalcin also got selected as the sixth member of the team.
MORE ABOUT THE BAND “BLACKSWAN”
Blackswan was a band started by Rania in 2011. It was then known as BP Rania before being given its present name in October 2020. The band consists of four members, its leader and Korean singer Go Young Heun (Youngheun), Belgium-based Senegalese singer-rapper-model Fatou Samba (Fatou), Korean singer-dancer Kim Da Hye (Judy), and maknae Brazilian-Japanese singer Larissa Ayumi Cartes Sakata (Leia).
The group initially made its debut, with its full-length album “Goodbye Rania” in 2020, and then released its second single record, “Close to Me” in 2021.
HER JOURNEY TO K-POP
Sriya was born in Odisha’s Rourkela district in the year 2003. Ever since she was a child, she kept a keen interest in music and dance. She is a supremely artistic person and trained herself in several dance forms like Odissi classical dance form, freestyle, and contemporary dance style. This bundle of talent has been working on her dancing skills since the age of 12. She gained interest in K-pop and decided to build her career in it when she first video of K-pop HIT “Growl MV” by The band Exo and tried to mimic their dance moves on her own.
AUDITIONING
In 2020, Covid-19 lockdown, Sriya began auditioning for K-pop groups and took the effort to watch Korean dramas to grasp the language and learn more about their culture.
After months of practice and hard work, It was only in December 2021 when Sriya was shortlisted to train in Seoul to join the Korean pop band Blackswan. After, its oldest band member Hyeme quit the group in November 2020. It was Sriya and her dedication to her dream that she got selected through an online audition via YouTube among 4,000 applicants around the world.
As per the reports, the last five months of her training were intense for Sriya, as it consisted of a rigorous curriculum that included rap, dance, vocals, musical instruments, personal development, and language.
Finally, Sriya Lenka successfully finished her training, and the Blackswan group announced on Thursday that she has been chosen as the fifth member of the group.
Sriya’s father, Avinash Lenka, who works for a private company in Jharsuguda, told the media that he feels delighted after hearing that she is the first K-pop star from India to join a Korean band.
We are proud that India happens to be a country with immense talent and diversity. It is a surreal moment to witness a young Indian girl represent herself in a country like Korea with such a vast cultural difference. Sriya and dedication and hard work are indeed commendable. We wish her the best in all her future endeavors.
Source: Hindustantimes.com
