Oklahoma's own K-Pop star AleXa is set to come home for October concert

A rising K-Pop star from Oklahoma is planning to return to her home state in concert this fall.

Tulsa native AleXa, who won the NBC competition series "American Song Contest," has announced the dates, cities and venues for her first U.S. headlining tour in October.

The eight-city trek includes an Oklahoma City show Oct. 25 at the Tower Theatre, 425 NW 23.

Tickets to the OKC concert go on sale at 2 p.m. Friday. For more information, go to https://kpoptickets.com.

Who is AleXa?

K-pop (short for "Korean pop") singer, dancer and songwriter Alex Christine, known professionally as AleXa, was born in Tulsa and raised in Jenks. Growing up, she was a cheerleader for Jenks High School, took dance lessons and enjoyed riding horses. In 2008, her best friend introduced her to K-pop, with the boy group SHINee and female solo artist Chung Ha becoming lasting influences. 

In 2018, AleXa, 25, moved to South Korea to pursue a K-pop career. After winning the online talent competition "Rising Legends" — determined through nearly a million fan votes — she was one of the 96 contenders chosen to participate in “Produce 48,” the most competitive audition show in Korea.   

Signed with ZB, a label owned by South Korean video production company Zanybros, AleXa made her multilingual K-pop debut in 2019 with “Bomb." The song landed at No. 7 on Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart and has nabbed more than 23 million views with an action-packed music video. 

A year later, AleXa won top Korean awards for her extended plays “Do Or Die” and “Decoherence." In the past year, the Oklahoma native has released the Y2K-inspired EP “ReviveR,” featuring the infectious dance track "Xtra," performed the National Anthem for the Los Angeles Dodgers and made her acting debut with the new Korean horror anthology sequel "Goedam 2" (aka "Urban Myths: Tooth Worms"). 

How did AleXa represent Oklahoma on live TV?

She got the chance to represent her home state on NBC's "American Song Contest," which was billed as America's answer to the long-running Eurovision Song Contest. Hosted by Kelly Clarkson and Snoop Dogg, the live performance series spotlighted 56 acts — one for each of the 50 states, five U.S. territories and Washington, D.C. — over its eight-week run.

As the Oklahoma representative, AleXa made a big impression from the start, appearing on the March 21 debut episode as the second of 11 qualifiers and moving through each phase of the competition on the strength of popularity in the online fan voting.

Each time she took the "American Song Contest" stage backed by a bevy of athletic dancers, AleXa transported viewers to a quintessentially K-pop "Wonderland," blasting through the speedy lyrics and executing complicated choreography amid flashy lighting, pyrotechnics and visual effects. In what became her signature finale, she capped her performance by falling backward off a flight of stairs rising up from the stage.  

On the May finale, the 2015 Jenks High School graduate beat out nine other artists — including Grammy winner and Connecticut native Michael Bolton — to win "American Song Contest." The show gave her a chance to appear on the Billboard Music Awards and to have her song "Wonderland" streamed millions of times and played this summer on iHeartRadio.

"Country music is definitely something Oklahoma is well known for, but there bands like The All-American Rejects and Hanson as well that came from Oklahoma. It's so much more than just country music, and I'm very proud to represent that," AleXa told The Oklahoman in a spring interview.

"I am a proud Okie — born and raised for 21 years — so I was more than happy to represent my home state and my people for this competition. As a Korean American myself, I really wanted to represent my mother's Korean heritage ... and everything that I've been working for these past four years as a K-pop artist and bring that to America."

Features Writer Brandy "BAM" McDonnell has covered Oklahoma's arts, entertainment and cultural sectors for The Oklahoman for 20 years. Reach her at bmcdonnell@oklahoman.com, www.facebook.com/brandybammcdonnell and twitter.com/BAMOK. Support her work by signing up for her See & Do Oklahoma newsletter and subscribing to The Oklahoman.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma's rising K-Pop star AleXa returning to home state in concert