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Finding fame... and family? AleXa's Korean-American K-pop dream
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In this photo taken on June 21, 2022, Korean-American K-pop star AleXa, who recently won the American Song Contest, poses in a dance studio of South Korea's ZB Label in Seoul. (AFP/Anthony Wallace)
K
orean-American K-pop star AleXa has wanted to be on stage since she was a kid, but her search for fame in South Korea was also fuelled by another reason -- to help her mother find her birth family.
Adopted from South Korea by an American family, her mother knows little about her birth culture nor does she speak the language.
The blue-haired 25-year-old who recently won the American Song Contest -- the US version of Eurovision -- told AFP that eating kimchi was one of her few cultural links to her Korean heritage growing up.
That is, until AleXa discovered K-pop in 2008.
"That kind of sparked my dream and my drive to become a K-pop artist," said the Tulsa-born rising star, who has been dancing since she was two.
Growing up in Oklahoma, AleXa said seeing entertainers on-screen she could identify with as a Korean American showed her "an interesting path to follow".
At university, she took home the top prize at a K-pop competition -- a trip to South Korea to film a reality show where she met executives from her future company and entered the gruelling star-making training so many young hopefuls embark on.
