“If you look at the demographics, the most popular genre in America is country, so it really took me by surprise as well that K-pop is also appreciated by the general public,” AleXa told Parade.com in this exclusive interview. But what also made it special for the 25-year-old who was raised in Tulsa is that she won by just over 200 points, and the majority of those came from the popular vote rather than the jury. “I am overall very astounded to have such a large amount of support from America in general because, while K-pop itself as a genre in music is becoming more world known there are still places it has yet to grow in popularity,” she said. “So, the fact that this style of music and myself as an artist, and also coming from Oklahoma, and the fact that fans and people of America were supportive, it really warms my heart. I’m really grateful to see how many kind souls are out there rooting for my team.” A lifelong dancer, AleXa was first drawn to K-pop because of its strong performance identity. “I first discovered K-pop over a decade ago in 2008,” she said. “That was the first time I saw someone that I could see myself as, representation in the media, so that gave me this dream of wanting to be a performer. A K-pop idol is just definitely a dream that I sought after. So, through a lot of hard work and effort, and other people supporting me through my journey, here I am.” During the American Song Contest competition, “Wonderland” was the most streamed song with more than 2.7 million streams, but now as the winning song, it will get actual radio airplay on iHeartRadio. “This is going to be my first time being played on American national radio,” AleXa shared. “It’s just such a momentous time for not only me, but for my company, and for everybody in the K-pop scene, and for all the fans that voted to make this happen.” Read on as AleXa shares how being a fan of Eurovision made her say yes to auditioning for American Song Contest, the years she spent in South Korea after winning a contest, and her connection to Blake Shelton! Tell me a little bit about the backstory on “Wonderland.” Where did you come up with the idea for that and also how did you come up with the idea to enter the contest in the first place? Starting from the very beginning, my team and I have been long-term Eurovision fans—and we cannot wait for the finals that are coming up. I’m so excited to see which country wins this year, Italy won last year. We first got this invitation: “Hey, we are hosting an American Song Contest in the Eurovision format and we know that AleXa was born and raised in Oklahoma, so would she like to give it a shot at auditioning to represent Oklahoma?” As Eurovision fans, of course, we took the bull by the horns and went with it. We sent in audition tape after tape and eventually we were selected as the Oklahoma representative. Then we received so many incredible songs to possibly work with for the show, but upon hearing “Wonderland,” we knew for sure that that was the one to go with. It was a really big collaborative effort between five songwriters and me. The story overall talks about breaking that fantasy of when someone is leading you on. You think it’s a perfect world and everything and you’re so happy, but you’ve got to free yourself from that, free yourself from the toxic things around you. But also, as everyone knows the classic story of Alice in Wonderland, we know the White Rabbit leads her through her journey and Wonderland. I like to think metaphorically that the wonderful people in Oklahoma that shaped me to be who I am today are my White Rabbit who led me through my Wonderland. On The Voice and shows like that, every week you get to sing a different song, but on this one with it being a song competition, you have to sing the same song three times. How do you elevate it each time to make sure that you get through to the next level? As American Song Contest was following the Eurovision format, it is the one-song-all-the-way-through game. We were so fortunate to be working with such an amazing creative team to help put all these stages together. Every time we got together, we would brainstorm back and forth like, “OK, what can we add to make it more showstopping? What can we do to make it more dynamic?” Every time we collaborated together with these ideas, and they just came to fruition on stage, we were just so happy and amazed to see how everything came out at the end. When we think of Oklahoma, we think of Blake Shelton. Oh, goodness. Well, a quick little thing on that. Last night when I was in the car with Kelly Clarkson, she told me that Blake had messaged her, “Oklahoma has K-pop?” That’s a fun little tidbit. Speaking of Kelly, she won a TV competition. Did she have advice for you about what to do next? Miss Clarkson, oh goodness, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly. She is so kind. She is so sweet. We’re going to have a little bit more of a chance to talk today, but we did have some small talk going back. She was just so kind the whole time to me. Honestly, kindness speaks louder than any words of advice. The words escape me now, but just overall, the atmosphere of being kind just means so much to me. What’s the long-term dream? Will this take you to the next level? What do you envision for yourself? I guess next levels would be a good way to put it. For me, rather than leveling up, I only wish that from this opportunity more doors open. There’s so many different things I would love to explore and try and take on as a challenge, so we will just be waiting to see what happens from this. You get to attend the Billboard Awards. Is that exciting or more nerve-wracking because there’s some really big names there? It is a bit nerve-wracking. As far as I know, I’m only presenting an award. I’m not too sure about performing, but even just presenting an award is such an honorable position to be in. I’m very nervous because I don’t know which artist I’m going to be presenting to, so that’s kind of wracking my nerves day and night. Are you hoping you get to present K-pop? That would be wonderful if it could happen, but any genre, any musical act that I get to bestow an award to, I’m going to take that with pride and honor. You were born and raised in Tulsa, but you were the winner of the online talent competition Rising Legends and were one of the 96 chosen to participate in “Produce 48,” the most competitive audition show in Korea. Do you speak Korean and what was that transition like to move there because there must be some culture shock involved? As some people may or may not know, my mother actually was born and raised in Korea until she was 5. She was adopted at a very young age, so she grew up speaking English here in the States. With that competition, I moved to South Korea and then I started studying Korean. That was about four years ago, and I wouldn’t say I’m fluent, I’m still about 85-90 percent of the way there. If you ask me about politics or science, I cannot communicate about that, but otherwise I think we’re OK. It was definite culture shock, but my goodness, there’s so many incredible things about Korea, but also things that I see there that are reflective of home in Oklahoma strangely enough. Can you elaborate a little bit on more with those things might be? What reminded you of home? Everyone knows Korean barbecue is a thing, of course, and so while the love of barbecue in Korea is different than American-style barbecue, it’s still a thing. I remember going to barbecue restaurants in Oklahoma with my folks, going to big grill competitions that my parents’ friends were in, and I’m in Korea where there’s also BBQ. It’s like, “Hey, neat!” People are going to want to know, have you met BTS? I have not been blessed with their presence yet, but hopefully one day I will have the opportunity to make their acquaintance. So, your song is going to be on iHeartRadio and you’re going to be at the Billboard Awards next Sunday, but have you thought about what you are going to do next? Upcoming, I have two days of some fan signing events in L.A. and Las Vegas, and aside from that, I’m just really hoping that this year possibly brings a tour depending on how things go. I really would hope to tour and just pay back all the love that my fans are giving to me. Next,Everything We Know About American Song Contest, Including All 56 Contestants
