Odisha’s 18 Year Old Shreya Lenka becomes first K-Pop star from India
Odisha’s 18 Year Old girl Shreya Lenka, became the first K-Pop star from India. She was chosen as a new member to the famous Korean band, Blackswan, along with a Brazilian girl, Gabriela Dalcin.
Lenka was selected for the last phase of training in Seoul to become a member of the band, after the oldest member of the group, Hyeme, quit the band in November 2020. Last year in May, the group’s promoter DR Music announced global auditions through a YouTube audition programme. Gabriela and Shreya were chosen among the 4000 applicants.
The group took to their Instagram handle to announce the addition of the two new members. It also mentioned that with the two new faces on board, the group shall be back with Blackswan.
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Lenka, a dancer trained in Odissi, Freestyle and Hip Hop, got hooked to K-Pop like millions of teenagers. During the pandemic in 2020, she started practising giving auditions. She also learnt Korean language, lifestyle and culture by watching a lot of Korean dramas.
Reacting to Shreya becoming one of the members of the Blackswan, her father Avinash Lenka, said, “Though I had faith on her hard work, I never expected that Shreya would make it. Despite all my misgivings about her future, I encouraged her to follow her passion for dancing as she always wanted to be a dancer and participated in several dance competitions.”
Blackswan was initiated by a company name Rania in 2011. It then changed to BP Rania before gaining the name of Blackswan in October 2020.