Lenka will be joining the girl band along with Gabriela Dalcin from Brazil
Shreya Lenka, an 18-year-old girl from Odisha’s Rourkela, has been selected as the fifth member of popular South Korean pop band Blackswan, a PTI report in The Week, says.
Lenka, who goes by stage name Sriya, will be joining the original members of the girl group — Youngheun, Fatou, Judy and Leia — along with Gabriela Dalcin (Gabi) from Brazil as the sixth member.
Record label DR Music welcomed Lenka and Dalcin on board in an Instagram post. “With their debut, we will be back with the new Blackswan,” the post, accompanied with photographs of the new members, read.
Lenka and Dalcin were selected for the band after participating in the six-month-long global auditions, that were announced by DR Music last year after Hyeme left the girl group.
D R Music Entertainment Korea director Philip Y J Yoon said Lenka and Dalcin worked well together during the audition process.
As part of the training, which started in December, both the artists had to work on their Korean language, dancing and vocal skills.
“The duo will now start preparing for their new album and stage performances,” Yoon added.
Lenka, a trained dancer, was introduced to K-pop by a friend a few years ago. She found the choreography in the music videos very attractive and got hooked onto its “unique style” of singing and dancing. In 2020, she saw K-pop record labels open online auditions due to the Covid-19 pandemic and decided to give it a shot.
When Lenka’s family learnt that she was applying for K-pop auditions, her grandmother introduced her to a classical music teacher. Her short stint in learning Odissi helped her improve subtle nuances.
Shreya has been dancing since she was a kid. She is trained in classical dance and has been learning freestyle, hip hop and contemporary reportedly. She wants to be a versatile dancer.
In an interview with Talk Talk Korea, Sriya revealed that she trains her vocal skills with a Hindustani classical teacher.
She said, “I dedicated maximum hours to work on my vocals and expand my vocal range. My name was announced after eighteen girls (in the audition’s first round), so I thought I needed to practice night and day to reach the top spot.”
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