Shreya Lenka is an Indian Kpop trainee competing to become the fifth member of the South Korean girl group Blackswan, the first Kpop girl group to have African Americans.
Wiki/Biography
Shreya Lenka, also Shriya, was born on Monday, 15 September 2003 (age 18; in 2021), in Rourkela, Odisha. His zodiac sign is Virgo.
Childhood photos of Shreya Lenka
He wanted to learn music since childhood. His deep voice is often a barrier to getting a voice teacher. His grandmother then took him to a Hindustani classical music teacher, who taught him twice a week. However, he practiced in western music by watching online videos. Shreya has been training in dance since kindergarten. However, she started training seriously in dance in 2016. She started by studying Odissi for a year and a half but gave it up because it was expensive. He was first trained by Madan Mohan Purty, who won BoogieWoogie Hip Hop in 2009. When his father was transferred to Jharsuguda, he enrolled in the dance studio of Mendo Barla, a famous choreographer, fitness instructor and dance studio owner.
He has trained in freestyle, hip-hop and contemporary dance. He had to drop a year due to the curfew in India in 2021 after passing grade 10. He decided to enroll in grade 11 when he had to go to South Korea as a Kpop trainee.
Physical appearance
Height: 5′ 7″
Eye Color: Black
Hair Color: Black
Family
His father’s name is Abinash Lenka, who works in a private company in Jharsuguda.
Shreya Lenka’s childhood photos with her father
His mother’s name is Priyathama. He has a brother and a sister.
Shreya Lenka with her brother and sister
Competing for the Black Swan
In June-July 2020, in a series of Instagram posts by Kpop girl group member Rania, it was announced that Rania would be reformed as ‘Black Swan.’ The three old members Rania, Youngheun, Leia, and Hyeme, along with two new members, Judy and Fatou, are named Blackswan.
Original member of Blackswan
In October 2020, the group debuted their full-length album ‘Goodbye Rania’ with their lead single ‘Tonight.’
On November 9, 2020, Hyeme was under controversy for allegedly defrauding a friend out of 50 million KRW (about US$44,800). The next day, DR music announced Hyeme’s departure due to controversy and because her contract with the agency had expired. On May 10, 2021, global auditions for new members of Blackswan were announced by DR Music. Shreya participated in the global auditions, and for the first round of auditions, she submitted a dance video and a song video. After the first round, when the Blackswan member announced his name, he jumped for joy. He was among 23 shortlisted from 4,000 applicants from around the world in July. While talking about it in an interview, he said,
My name was announced after eighteen girls, so I thought I would have to train day and night to reach the top spot. I have a hard time finding the right song. I shot some and sent them to my teacher. Even though he didn’t listen to English or K-pop songs, he said one of my songs was good, so I believed him and sent it to DR Music.”
The second round of auditions took place when it was a partial shutdown in Odisha; studios and gyms were closed so he shot the video in the open following protocol and sent it. Out of 23 candidates, 4 were selected in the second round to train in South Korea; Shreya is one of them. Two girls decide to leave, leaving Shreya and Gabriela Dalcin from Brazil fighting to become Kpop idols. In December 2021, he went to South Korea for a six-month training at DR Music to fight to become the fifth member of Blackswan.
Favourite
- Kpop Girlband(s): Rania, Blackpink
- Kpop boybands: BTS, Exo
- Song: DR Feel Good by Rania
Facts/Trivia
- He is a yoga practitioner, which he adopted gradually from a family of yoga fanatics. Her uncle and aunt were yoga teachers, and doing yoga was a morning family routine. He has also won several yoga competitions. According to him,
When I learned that yoga asanas can improve my body language and flexibility, I started practicing them more. I was more interested in the creative field, so when my family said that I could build a career in it, I started working harder.”
Shreya Lenka does yoga
- She has won awards in many dance competitions.
Shreya Lenka with the award she won in the dance competition
- Her parents always encouraged her to follow her passion for dancing. According to her parents, Lenka always works hard and is focused. After coming home from school at 2.30pm in her school days, she used to go to her dance practice and never come home before 9pm.
- According to his mother, he wanted to follow the dance but could not because his father did not agree. He doesn’t know if his daughter will become a K-pop idol, but he’s happy that Shreya is living her dream.
- He became interested in Kpop after a friend showed him the song ‘Growl’ by Kpop boy group Exo. He fell in love with Kpop and started imitating their moves. He soon learned about PSY, Rania, BTS, Blackpink and wanted to become an idol himself.
- In 2021, one of his friends told him to apply for a Kpop audition held online. He started applying to many entertainment companies. He follows many agencies on social media and watches bloggers who talk about Kpop. That’s how he found DR Music’s global auditions for Blackswan’s fifth member and applied.
- He auditioned for many companies to become an intern. His first Kpop audition happened during the first shutdown in India. The dance studio wasn’t open, so she had to take pictures at the yoga studio where her aunt taught yoga. He didn’t qualify for the audition but received positive reviews, which kept him going through the rejections he faced during all the other auditions. While talking about auditioning in an interview, she said,
With every audition, I try to improve myself by watching the videos.”
- He trained hard in vocals in a one-year gap and auditioned to be a Kpop idol trainee for various companies. He studied English novels to improve his vocabulary and listened to English songs to improve his pronunciation. She also opened her YouTube channel and learned how to record and edit her dance videos. Her YouTube channel, Shreya Lenka Dance, has 19.7K subscribers, and she posts dance videos and song covers on her channel.
- She spends her days in yoga sessions, dance practice, vocal practice, learning Korean, watching K-dramas and researching dance and music.
- In his free time, he makes sketches and Mandala art.
Shreya Lenka’s Instagram story showing Mandala Art
- Shreya will be the third person to become a Kpop idol from India if she becomes a member of Blackswan. The first reported Sid aka Siddhant Arora (from Uttar Pradesh), former member of the multi-national Z-Pop group, Z-Boys. The second is Priyanka Mazumdar (from Assam), a member of Z-Girls, the female counterpart of Z-Boys. Both come from Z POP, a talent show to promote Kpop in Asia.
Siddhant Arora and Priyanka Mazumdar
Categories: Biography
Source: SCHOOL TRANG DAI
