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Eurovision Countdown- ASC Contestant AleXa

Sorry the 2nd post is later this week; I had a bit of a stressful weekend! :)

 

Last week I started a series of "mini posts" related to the Eurovision Song Contest, which is coming up next month. This is in addition to my annual two Eurovision posts. You can read last week's countdown post below:

Eurovision Countdown- Past Contestant Hadise: https://starsparklex.blogspot.com/2022/04/eurovision-countdown-past-contestant.html

 

Today I'm focusing on the American Song Contest. It's the American version of Eurovision and launched this year. 

ASC premiered back on Monday 21st March on the American TV channel NBC and will run until early May. The Grand Final will be on Monday 9th May, the day before the first Eurovision semi-final. The show, which is hosted by rapper Snoop Dogg and first season American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson, features acts from all 50 US states, plus 5 territories and from the capital Washington D.C (bringing the total to 56 entries).

If you're in a country where the show is not televised (such as the UK), you can watch episodes and clips on YouTube. :)

In last month's Live Performances Round-up post, I briefly mentioned the contest and linked to a performance by AleXa, who featured in the first episode, representing her home state Oklahoma. She qualified for the semi-finals and will compete in the first one tomorrow (25th April).

AleXa (full name Alexandra Christine Schneiderman) was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and she has a South Korean mum and Russian American dad. She started out in the Korean music industry by taking part in the K-pop music competitions/reality shows Rising Legends and Produce 48.

Although she didn't make it into a company training programme, AleXa signed with ZB Label (ZANYBROS) and went on to launch a solo career with her debut single album Bomb in October 2019. I first came across her music on K-pop shows. In April 2020 she brought out her first EP Do or Die, which was preceded by the single of the same name.

To date AleXa has released two more single albums- ReviveR (2021) and Tattoo (2022), and a 2nd EP called DECHORENCE (2020). She has collaborated with metal/rock band Diablo on a rock version of her debut single Bomb and rock band ONEWE on an acoustic version of her single Never Let You Go. And she also teamed up with both female rock band Rolling Quartz and rapper BM of the group KARD for new versions of her single Xtra. Her other singles include Villain, Revolution and her latest, TATTOO.  

AleXa's entry in ASC is called Wonderland. Here is her performance from the 1st qualifier last month (I had to replace the video I originally linked to because it was made private, but this is still an official upload):

 


 

There has been some debate over whether she's actually singing live. As a K-pop fan I don't think that all the artists do have live vocals (I mention that because her background is K-pop), but some people say you can't hear them because of the playback. I do think that singing live on a music show is preferable (particuarly in a competition), although I do understand that energetic dancing can make it more difficult. Regardless, it's a good song. :)

 

And here are a few of AleXa's K-pop songs. :)

  

Villain

First up is Villain, which was the pre-release single from DECOHERENCE and came out in July 2020. It's a mostly Korean language song (with a few English lyrics). Click on "Subtitles/closed captions" on YouTube for English subtitles. :)

 


 


REVOLUTION

This is REVOLUTION which is also from DECOHERENCE and was released in October 2020. It's mostly Korean with some English.




TATTOO

And finally, this is TATTOO, her latest single which came out in January. It's from the EP of the same name. This is an English song.

 



 Plus, here is the official performance video of Wonderland:

 



And you can see her recent performance of Wonderland on Simply K-pop CON-TOUR here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_poZORtq6Q

Good luck AleXa and the other remining contestants! :) I look forward to checking out more entries. I know that Jewel entered for Alaska. I have her 2004 album 0304 but haven't heard much of her newer music. 


For more on AleXa visit these links:

Kprofile: https://kprofiles.com/alexa-profile-facts/

YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWWzmRMh6BPcEt46XlTyp1w

Official FB: https://www.facebook.com/ZBAleXa/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexa_zbofficial/

 

And for more on the American Song Contest, visit these sites:

Eurovision ASC page: https://eurovision.tv/story/the-american-song-contest-is-about-to-begin

NBC site: https://www.nbc.com/american-song-contest

Official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwhqa7HheXP6viYJ9SyJYTA

 

Plus, keep up with the news for Eurovision 2022 (held in Italy on 10th, 12th and 14th May) at the official site: https://eurovision.tv/



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