Welcome back to Fan Chant, a weekly column for K-pop fans, followers, and newbies. Today, American Song Contest winner AleXa joins us to talk about her new single. And PS: if you love reading Fan Chant, you can do it. subscribe Head over to my complimentary newsletter to get it delivered straight to your inbox each week!
The full interview with AleXa is also available as an episode of the Consequence UNCUT podcast. Listen below or wherever you get your podcasts.
If there's one thing AleXa knows she can do, it's work on stage.
In 2022, AleXa was crowned the inaugural winner American song contest, a TV show inspired by Eurovision but run with delegates from each of our fifty states. After spending years training in South Korea, AleXa returned home, competed on behalf of her home state of Oklahoma, and immediately found a passionate fan base.
It's no secret that over the last decade K-pop has created its own community in the United States, and AleXa took the opportunity to give a wider audience a look at some of its magic. “If I do a TV show here in Korea, there are seven different cameras and angles to approach and you have one chance to get it right,” she explains. “I was one of the only people [on American Song Contest] that was experienced in that… So I am very grateful to have my experience in K-pop, because that, in general, teaches you how to perform well.”
Since being crowned the winner, she's returned to South Korea to continue making music, but she's also had plenty of opportunities to return to the US, including a spot on the most recent Jingle Ball, which offers a different kind of pressure. “I think they were the biggest venues I've performed in since my debut as an artist,” she recalls. “Jingle Ball is not a K-pop concert, it is the general public. But when I came out it was to great applause, screams and support… I was very happy the entire time I was performing, because nothing makes me happier than looking down and seeing someone smiling.”
The day we spoke via video call, AleXa and I were recovering from a cold and she was in the middle of a long press day, but she really couldn't have seemed more excited to talk about her latest release, a pop. -punk track called “sick”. She explains that there are different ways to interpret the song: “If you're in a relationship with someone, you might think, 'Oh, they're out of my league, they're so much better than me,' “They're so perfect it makes me sick,” she says. “But on the other hand, they are actually very cocky. Oh, disgusting, that me sick.”
I am very excited to have AleXa as our first Fan Chant guest and that she will also appear on our podcast series. UNCUT Consequence. In the episode, she discusses some of the differences between living in Seoul, where she has been for six years, and spending time in the United States. You can take the girl out of Oklahoma, but you can't always take Oklahoma out of the girl; she says that she misses Raising Cane the most.
Listen to our full conversation at the links above and watch the music video for his new song, “sick,” below.
thanks to our partners at consequence.net
