Sriya Lenka, an 18-year-old singer from Odisha, was picked as one of the new groupmates of the K-pop band Blackswan on Thursday, with a Brazilian girl. K-pop, or Korean pop, is an incredibly famous music genre in the world due to its craze among teenagers.
After the group’s eldest member Hyeme left in November 2020, Lenka, a lanky girl from Rourkela city, was chosen for the final leg of training in Seoul to become a part of the Korean pop band Blackswan. In May of last year, the group’s promoter, DR Music, announced global tryouts to succeed her, and Lenka and Gabriela Dalcin of Brazil, both 19, were picked from 4,000 candidates via a YouTube audition procedure.
DR Music released the names of Lenka and Gabriela as the 5th and 6th members of Blackswan, despite the fact that they were only supposed to choose one. “We will be returning with Blackswan with their debut,” the group announced in an Instagram post. Lenka and Gabriela will both remain in Seoul for the next few months to practise for the group’s next record. In the last five months, the two had been subjected to a rigorous training regimen that included everything from normal voice, rap, and dance sessions to private lessons, linguistic, and musical instrument lessons.
Since the age of 12, Lenka has been doing Odissi classical dance as well as freestyle, hip-hop, and contemporary dance. Like millions of Indian teenagers, she also became addicted to K-pop. Her K-pop ambitions were bolstered when she viewed Exo’s Growl music video and attempted to imitate the members’ motions. She had to practice on her roof and learn how to make tryout videos from YouTube during Covid in 2020. She learned Korean internet and watched a bunch of Korean dramas to learn both the languages and culture when she first started auditioning. Lenka’s parents are filled with pride and joy and are wishing all the success for her.