AleXa’s story has been one of pure, unstoppable determination. Whether it was competing on the Mnet reality show Produce 48, to making her K-pop debut in 2019, to representing her home state of Oklahoma in the inaugural American Song Contest, the 27-year-old singer has never stopped moving. “As a Sagittarius, I have wanderlust, meaning I cannot stay in the same place,” she says during a video call with NME, a week ahead of her official US debut single ‘sick’.
Even before its release, AleXa previewed the moody pop-rock number on some of the biggest stages in the US, first at the 2023 ‘iHeartRadio Jingle Ball’ tour and, more recently, on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “[It was] absolutely insane to me, because Kelly [Clarkson] is the goat,” she says, with the pair first meeting during the American Song Contest in 2022. “I’m forever grateful that she still has a place for me and her heart after two years, to actually invite me back onto her show for my American debut. She is Southern hospitality.”
For long-time fans, ‘sick’ might feel like a reversal from much of AleXa’s K-pop material, which were typically dance-pop tunes made to be performed with tight, powerful choreography, but the singer shares that this was intentional. “With this being my official American debut, we wanted to go with a sound, image and overall aesthetics that are kind of a 180 to what we’ve done so far with AleXa the K-pop artist,” she reveals, saying that she wanted to “give something new that my fans and potentially a new demographic has not yet seen”.
‘sick’ is also an outlier of sorts in AleXa’s discography because it is, as she puts it, “one of the few songs I didn’t have a hand in writing myself”, which leaves it “open for interpretation” to fans. Personally, though, the singer sees it as a story “about idealising someone so much” that it makes you sick. “Like maybe the person I’m in love with has like this god complex, and they think they’re so perfect and whatever, and seeing that, that’s what makes me sick,” she adds.
While AleXa is now turning her focus on the US for now, her experience as a K-pop artist has been fundamental to her identity, not only as a musician, but as the child of a Korean adoptee. “I was hoping that through my journey in Korea, if one day I see my name and lights in this country, hopefully somebody will look at me [and] look at my past because there are videos of me with my mom publicly online, and be like, ‘Oh my God, that’s our daughter’,” she explains. “I really want to help find my mom’s birth parents.” While her journey has yet to reap the results she hoped for, the singer cheerfully adds that DNA and ancestry tracing sites have helped them find a distant relative all the way in Norway.
Regardless, AleXa shares that her journey as a K-pop star has also been an opportunity to connect with her heritage as a Korean-American. “Living and breathing air in Korea for the past six years, I definitely feel like I’ve gotten a lot closer to the culture,” she says. “Especially now that I’ve learned the language, first and foremost, because I had no knowledge of that growing up.” The singer adds that she has surprised herself using and thinking in Korean expressions in America on more than one occasion. “I’ve become more culturally in touch with my roots now that I’ve lived here, and I’m grateful for that.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I definitely wanted to become an idol because I was also a K-pop fan,” she says playfully. “I am still a fan. You gotta love the work you do. I think that’s a really important guideline to live by, especially if you’re a creative type.” As the conversation shifts to some of her favourite artists and inspirations, her admiration for powerful, boundary-pushing performers – both in and out of the K-pop industry – becomes apparent.
“The first group I really fell in love with was SHINee. And so, I have long since admired Taemin because he is a god when it comes to dancing,” AleXa reveals, recounting an old interview where SHINee’s Taemin shared that he’d been told early in his career to “stick to dancing” instead of trying to sing. “Now he’s like, the Number One male soloist. He clearly works so hard, has an amazing work ethic and toolbox of talents. He’s just someone I admire.”
That infallible work ethic has become a standard AleXa holds herself to in her own career, no matter how tough it gets. “I’ll be transparent. Life [as a K-pop idol] is just how I imagined it would be. It’s as difficult as I thought it would be, and it’s as fun as I thought it would be,” she says frankly. Many of her struggles, she says, have revolved around injuries, recalling a particularly painful back injury she sustained while preparing for her first comeback in 2020 – ironically for a single titled ‘Do or Die’.
“I just had to push through and make sure that I did my best regardless. It [wasn’t] so much that ‘I’m hurt, so I can’t do this’, but there’s a whole staff of people that put aside their time to film these things, it’s not like we can always delay or postpone things,” she reveals. “I just had to get my shit together and get through it all. I feel like injuries for me have been the most difficult because it’s so upsetting when it’s like, I know I can do better than this. But because I’m hurt, it’s like a hindrance.”
Emphasising that she has more than recovered from her past injuries, AleXa is buzzing to talk about her upcoming 2024 ‘sick of you’ US tour, set to kick off this March in New York City. “To me, [touring] is very refreshing. Just seeing new faces, hearing new languages, trying new flavours and just smelling new smells,” she says. This wanderlust, as she puts it, extends to her own showmanship. “I never want to show the same thing twice. I don’t want to be known as a one trick pony.”
Although AleXa is reluctant to spoil what she has in store, the singer teases new choreography, song covers and unreleased tracks for her upcoming shows. “It’s not so much like, ‘Oh, the fans want something new’. It’s more or less my own greed [as a performer] to do it for myself, to be honest,” she adds, though she is still excited to see how fans will react to the covers she has prepared. “I feel like a good majority of my fans are within my similar age range. So I feel like the sense of nostalgia that I feel towards the songs will be shared amongst the audience.”
While the singer is grateful for all that she’s been able to achieve so far, she is manifesting four simple things in 2024: Health, wealth, success and happiness. “Life isn’t about money, but I want to be able to live and eat comfortably,” she explains with a laugh. “And success for me doesn’t mean winning a freaking Grammy or becoming the most famous person in the world. As long as I’m happy doing what I’m doing and that it makes a positive impact on people’s lives, I consider that success. And happiness overall, because what’s the point of living if you’re not happy?”
When asked what happiness means to her, AleXa takes a moment to ponder before saying: “If I think of what happiness is, it’s like, if I find myself walking down the street and smiling for no reason. Because there’s got to be a reason [I’m smiling], and that is just pure happiness. So, smiling without really knowing why.”
AleXa’s new single ‘sick’ is out now on all major streaming platforms.