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Who is Sriya Lenka? The first K-pop star from India
As Sriya Lenka successfully completed her training, the Blackswan group announced Thursday that she has been chosen as the fifth member of the group.
India on Thursday got its first K-pop star as 18-year-old Sriya Lenka from Odisha was named the fifth member of renowned group Blackswan. Lenka’s journey to Blackswan started in 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdown, when she started auditioning for several K-pop bands. After a series of auditions, she was finally shortlisted for a training camp in Seoul where she honed her artistic skills in an intense 5-month programme. Apart from Lenka, Brazil’s 19-year-old Gabriela Dalcin was named as the sixth member of the group
Who is Sriya Lenka: The first K-pop star from India
> Sriya Lenka was born in Odisha’s Rourkela district in 2003. Since her childhood, she was interested in the music and arts industry. Lenka’s father, Avinash Lenka, works for a private company in Jharsuguda. He told the media that he was overjoyed after hearing that his daughter would be the first Indian to be a K-pop star.
> Lenka is trained in several dance styles, including Odissi classical form, freestyle, hip-hop and contemporary. She has been building her dancing skills since the age of 12. Sriya Lenka decided to build on her K-pop dream after she watched the video of K-pop hit ‘Growl MV’ by Exo band and tried to copy the members’ moves.
> During the Covid-19 lockdown imposed in 2020, she started auditioning for K-pop groups. She learnt Korean online and watched a lot of Korean dramas to strengthen her grasp of Korean language and culture.
> In December 2021, after months of practising and several auditions, Sriya Lenka was shortlisted for training in Seoul to become a member of the Korean pop band Blackswan, after its oldest member, Hyeme, left the group in November 2020. She was chosen from among 4,000 applicants through a YouTube audition programme.
> In the last five months of her training she was put through an intense process that ranged from standard vocal, rap, dance lessons to personal training, language, and musical instruments.
> As Sriya Lenka successfully completed her training, the Blackswan group announced Thursday that she has been chosen as the fifth member of the group.
About Blackswan K-pop group
Blackswan was started as Rania in 2011. It later became BP Rania before getting its current name in October 2020. It is currently a four-member K-pop girl band consisting of 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 debuted in 2020 with a full album Goodbye Rania, followed by its first single album Close to Me in 2021.
