K-Pop has been immensely popular with the Indian audiences, especially amongst the youth over the past few years whether it’s K-dramas or music bands such as BTS, India’s Millenials, and Gen Z have been in awe of South Korean artists.
This took over a teen from Odisha who made her way to South Korea and is now set to become a K-pop star herself!
Named Sriya Lenka, the Indian girl has made our country proud by becoming the first Indian K-Pop Star. The 18-year-old singer/dancer has been chosen to be one of the new group members of the K-pop group, BLACKSWAN along with another Brazilian girl.
Back in December 2021, Sriya was selected for the last leg of training in Seoul to become a member of the Korean pop band BLACKSWAN. Originally hailing from Rourkela, the teen got the audition for the South Korean group after its oldest member Hyeme left in November 2020.
Sriya Lenka and Gabriela Dalcin of Brazil, 19, were picked from 4,000 applicants through a YouTube audition programme. They are now the 5th and 6th members of the K-pop group respectively though, earlier, DR Music was supposed to pick just one member.
BLACKSWAN’s promoter, DR Music in May 2021 had announced global auditions to replace Hyemme.
The band in an Instagram post stated, “With their debut, we will be back with Blackswan.”
Sriya and Gabriela will now be in Seoul for the next few months for rehearsals. During the last 5 months, both of them were put through an intense training process which included standard vocal, rap, dance lessons, personal training, language, and musical instruments.
Becoming a K-Pop Star
Sriya has been learning Odissi classical dance as well as freestyle, hip-hop, and contemporary dance since the age of 12. Lately, she got hooked on K-pop, the immensely popular music genre of Indian Gen Z. This was magnified after she watched Exo’s Growl MV and tried, and then she instantly started to copy the members’ moves. It was her friend’s suggestion to try for the auditions that landed her in her dream place.
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“The journey was really challenging. Shreya worked really hard for this and our entire family was a constant support to her. During the COVID lockdown everyone was at home. At that time, one of Sriya’s friends told her about the auditions and asked her if she would like to try getting in. Then after a lot of discussion with her friends and sister Sonali, they encouraged her to do it,” informed Sriya’s mother, Priya Lenka.
Sriya can be termed self-made as she learned how to make audition videos from YouTube on the roof of her house during the COVID outbreak in 2020. She also tried to learn the Korean language and culture as she started auditioning by watching K-dramas and also learned Korean online. This would help her greatly in paving her way.
“She used to spend her nights translating the Korean alphabets and learning them thoroughly as it was peaceful and there was no disturbance. This helped her when she reached Korea. She could easily interact with people there. Even in her training which involves both singing and dancing, she faced no trouble for she knew the language. They were really happy for someone from India could be so fluent about their culture and language,” shared her mom.
Sriya is a pride of Lenka family and India
Sriya’s father Avinash Lenka works in a private firm in Jharsuguda and was overjoyed after his daughter’s achievement. In fact, her entire family is.
“We are extremely happy for her achievement. She has made India proud and there can’t be anything greater than this for a parent,” told the elated Priya Lenka.
About BLACKSWAN
About BLACKSWAN
BLACKSWAN is a 4-member girl group with Korean singer Go Young Heun aka Youngheun as the lead. Belgium-based Senegalese singer-rapper-model Fatou Samba aka Fatou, Korean singer-dancer Kim Da Hye aka Judy, and Maknae Brazilian-Japanese singer Larissa Ayumi Cartes Sakata aka Leia add to the jewels of the group. The K-pop band made its debut in 2020 with a full album Goodbye Rania, followed by its first single album Close to Me in the year 2021.