Meet K-Pop Artist AleXa Representing Oklahoma on ‘American Song Contest’
Trae Patton/NBC Reading Time: 4 minutes
After stunning with her original song “Wonderland,” AleXa, representing Oklahoma, is continuing on into the semi finals of American Song Contest. This k-pop singer was clearly a natural on stage, but actually has a history of performing in Korea.
As mentioned on American Song Contest, AleXa known as Alexandra Christine Schneiderman off stage, was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She began learning to dance at a young age and joined a competitive show choir at a young age. While attending the Tulsa Community College, she created an Instagram and Snapchat account dedicated to covering K-pop songs and choreography.
AleXa got her beginning in the Rising Legends competition run by a Korean pop culture website, Soompi. The winner of the competition was awarded with a chance to take part in a trainee program. AleXa competed twice in the series, once in 2016 and another time in 2017. After the competition she signed to the record label ZB. At the label, she was trained in the art of performing for roughly two and a half years.
Ahead of AleXa’s solo career she competed on the series, Produce 48, which sought out members for a K-pop girl group. This singer/dancer was eliminated during the first round at No. 82 in 2018. A year later, she released her debut single “Bomb.” Soon after the song’s release both the English and Korean versions were featured on the U.S. Top K-Pop Charts. The Korean version charted at No. 5, while the English version charted at No. 36. During this time she also began sharing dance videos on her YouTube and Instagram accounts.
She Succeeds With ZB Record Deal
After the success of her debut single, she began performing live in locations like the global festival “KAMP Singapore 2019,” the LG K-Pop India Contest 2019, and more. The coronavirus slowed down many artists, but AleXa wasn’t one of them. In 2020 she released a mini album along with two track singles “A.I TROOPER,” “VILLAIN,” and “Rule the World.” She shared a music video with each release. Her EP, Do or Die was featured on Spotify’s K-Pop rising playlist during this time.
When AleXa wasn’t working on music, she was heard on the podcast How Did I Get Here? After guest hosting the podcast series, she was announced as the official permanent figure on the show alongside fellow K-Pop artist Jae Park.
The following year AleXa dropped her second mini album Decoherence, along with other singles. In 2021, she created another YouTube channel to primarily focus on vlog and behind the scenes content. Her most notable work during this year was Spotify’s third RADAR collaboration in the MENA (middle east and north africa) region. AleXa worked alongside a Kuwaiti-Saudi pop singer Bader AlShuaibi on this project.
Ahead of American Song Contest, AleXa released her most popular song to date, “Tattoo.” This song topped the iTunes K-Pop charts soon after its release in seven regions including the U.S., Germany, and Canada. It is still her most popular song on Spotify.
Was AleXa Lip Syncing on American Song Contest?
This artist was met with harsh criticism following her American Song Contest performance. Even though she has been through intense training, fans of the series thought her performance was too good to be true. Many believed she was lip syncing during the live performance to make up for the intense choreography.
Fans of K-Pop quickly came to AleXa’s defense on social media. K-Pop artists go through training to put on a performance like AleXa’s. It’s not uncommon for K-Pop or Pop artists to have a backtrack if they are singing and dancing on stage. the same fans did notice that the backtrack didn’t necessarily help AleXa since it was too loud. The artists voice is clearly there in the live performance, it’s just faint.
Backtracks typically contain the beat and harmonization that are hard to recreate on stage while dancing. Since the music was too loud for the singer, many thought she just lip syncing along to the track. Instead, this technique helps the artist put on a better show including both song and dance aspects. I think it’s worth noting that AleXa wasn’t the only artist to use backtracking in her performance.
