Odisha's 18-yr-old Sriya Lenka becomes India's first K-pop star

CHENNAI: Sriya Lenka, an 18-year-old vocalist from Odisha, made headlines as she was picked to be one of the newest group members of the K-pop group, Blackswan, together with a Brazilian girl.

The artist was born in Rourkela in 2003 and studied Hindustani classical dance as well as Odissi and other contemporary dance genres since the age of 12.

During Covid in 2020, she started practicing and learned how to make audition videos. When she first started auditioning, she learnt Korean online and watched a lot of Korean dramas to get a feel for the language and culture.

After the group's eldest member Hyeme left in November 2020, Lenka was chosen for the final stretch of training in Seoul to become one of the members of the Korean pop band Blackswan.

DR Music, announced global tryouts to replace Hyeme, and lenka and Gabriela Dalcin of Brazil were picked from 4,000 candidates through a YouTube audition procedure.

DR Music announced the names of Lenka and Gabriela as the 5th and 6th members of Blackswan, despite the fact that the K-pop group was only meant to have one member.

“With their debut, we will be back with Blackswan,” the band wrote on an Instagram post.