This story is from May 28, 2022
Sriya Lenka
, getting a chance to be the first Indian to be part of the immensely popular Korean girl band Blackswan, it is one such moment.Sriya, from Odisha’s Jharsuguda, has been chosen along with Brazil’s 19-year-old Gabriela Dalcin (Gabi
) from 4,000 applicants from across the world in Blackswan’s audition programme. South Korean music company DR Music, which promotes Blackswan group, had started global auditions after one of its members Hyeme left the group in November 2020.The company got impressed with the talents ofSriya
and Gabi and took both the girls for its K-pop group as fifth and sixth members instead of one. Sriya and Gabi were finally selected as members of Blackswan after participating in the global audition programme for the past six months. “With their debut, we will be back with the new Blackswan,” said the company in an Instagram post on Thursday. The company in another post said Cygnus, which means constellation of swan, is a project to discover and to train trainees to become stars like the Cygnus. “Sriya and Gabi are the first generation of Cygnus that will be introduced soon,” said the company.Sriya had started training seriously at the age of 12. She is proficient in Odissi dance and Hindustani classical music. Now she is learning hip-hop, contemporary and freestyle to become a versatile dancer. She has also learnt western music. She has learnt Korean language there too. The versatile teen is the daughter of Avinash Lenka, who works in a private company at Jharsuguda. Her mother, Priya, is a homemaker. Sriya was born in Rourkela and later moved to Jharsuguda in 2007. After completion of her Class X from DAV Public School, Jharsuguda, she had taken admission in her first year in Womens College in Jharsuguda.After hearing the news of Sriya becoming the K-pop Girl from Odisha, her parents have been overjoyed with her achievement.“Feel happy that my daughter finally got selected in the K-pop girl group Blackswan. Her hard work and dedication finally paid off,” said Sriya’s mother.(With inputs from Ritesh Sharma, Jharsuguda)