Women power stands tall in music world

A teen from Odisha becomes India’s first K-pop star while a band of singers from Nagaland make waves across the country

Sriya Lenka

Though gender discrimination and favoritism in the music industry are seen as common obstacles for women singers, there have been stirring stories in the field.

Sriya Lenka, an 18-year-old from Rourkela in Odisha, scripted history by becoming the first Indian to become a K-pop star. She was announced as the fifth member of the K-pop girl band Blackswan recently.

K-Pop is one of the most extensively performed Korean music genres and is adored by fans worldwide. Blackswan is a K-pop female group led by Korean singer Go Young Heun.

Sriya started auditioning for K-pop groups during the Covid-19 lockdowns imposed in 2020. She learnt the Korean language online and watched many Korean dramas to strengthen her grasp of the language and culture.

Sriya was selected as a member of the group after its oldest member Hyeme left the band in November 2020.

She was shortlisted among 4,000 applicants after giving a series of auditions last year.

She was then put into a training programme for six months in vocals, rapping, dance choreographies, playing musical instruments, language acquisition and personal training at Seol to get into the band.

On getting selected to this coveted band, Sriya said, ‘’It is the happiest moment of my life as I wanted to make my family and friends proud with this feat.’’ Adding another feather to the country’s cap was a band ‘The Tetseo Sisters’, which hails from a tiny village Thuvopisu in Nagaland and is known for its traditional Naga music, performed at the Ladakh International Music Festival a month ago.

This group is known for singing Chokri folksongs and the sounds of hills, which act as a tribute to nature. The group members aim to showcase the richness of the tribes in Nagaland and other North Indian states.

“Our performances show the richness of Chokri folksongs of our ancestors and move into folk fusion and the origins of other northeastern languages. Our songs reflect our personal journey and the colourful costumes reflect our roots of Nagaland,’’ the singers said.

The singers got into folk music because of their parents’ encouragement and eventually fell in love with the songs sung in that region.

The band collaborates with the other artistes to share more unknown stories of their people and region.

The band members said it was heartwarming to see diverse people sing and dance to their hit song ‘O Rhosi’ in the Ladakah Music Festival.

They also performed a cover of ‘Teri Mitti’ (from the film ‘Kesari’) and ‘As We Go’, a music video shot in different parts of Ladakh in 2016.