How BTS inspired India's first K-pop idol Sriya Lenka’s journey. Exclusive interview

In an exclusive interview with indiatoday.in Sriya spoke about the challenges she had to overcome while training for the auditions. She also shared her love for K-pop supergroup BTS and their incredible chartbuster songs.

It was a dream come true for 18-year-old Sriya Lenka when she was chosen as a trainee member for the K-pop group Blackswan. Currently, the global obsession with K-pop groups and their music is quite high and it is quite evident from the regular trending hashtags and posts shared on social media sites. Sriya became the first artist from India to make a mark in the Korean music industry and get selected as a K-pop idol.

Hailing from Odisha, Sriya got selected for Blackswan on May 26. Blackswan was started back in 2011 by DR Music. Currently, it is a four-member group including the leader and Korean singer Go Young Heun (Youngheun), Belgium-based Senegalese singer Fatou Samba (Fatou), Korean singer-dancer Kim Da Hye (Judy) and Brazilian-Japanese singer Larissa Ayumi Cartes Sakata (Leia).

In an exclusive interview with indiatoday.in Sriya spoke about the challenges she had to overcome while training for the auditions. She also shared her love for K-pop supergroup BTS and their incredible chartbuster songs.

Read excerpts from the interview here:

Q. How did you prepare for the kpop contest? What special training/diet/schedule did you go through to win the contest?

We had to go through a lot of challenges and tests. And at the end of every month, the training we were taking were song classes, rap classes and, of course, lessons for learning the Korean language. We were on a strict diet to be healthy and also to gain the stamina for our performances.

To prepare for the audition, I started my training in Hindustani classical music to brush up my vocals. As for dance, I used to record my practice sessions to correct my mistakes and improve my steps.