Alex Christine, a.k.a. AleXa is living in a “Wonderland” as the first person to take home the gold in NBC’s first edition of American Song Contest.
“I am so elated, I am just so full of joy and gratitude that this experience was something that I even got to have the opportunity to do,” AleXa shares with Celeb Secrets reporter Blakely McHugh. “There are so many people who made this happen and I’m so grateful to have every single one of them in my life.”
The competition started eight weeks ago featuring 56 acts from all 50 states, five overseas territories and Washington D.C., all competing to win over the jury’s votes and America’s votes for the best original song.
On Monday night’s episode (May 9), the top ten contestants, AleXa from Oklahoma, Riker Lynch from Colorado, Jordan Smith from Kentucky, Grant Knoche from Texas, Allen Stone from Washington, Tenelle from American Samoa, Michael Bolton from Connecticut, Ni/Co from Alabama, Chloe Fredericks from North Dakota and Tyler Braden from Tennessee put out their best performance to try and take home the top spot.
AleXa came in fifth with the jury votes, but won by a landslide when America casted their vote.
“I just felt all the breath escape my body and it was just such a moment of just absolute speechlessness,” AleXa says while remembering the moment she found out she won. “I was at a loss for words. It was just such an incredible feeling.”
For those who don’t know, AleXa is a K-pop singer, dancer and songwriter who was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
American Song Contest is not her first run in with a TV singing competition show. In 2018, the artist competed on Produce 48, a South Korean reality competition series, but unfortunately was eliminated in the first round.
In 2019, AleXa made her multilingual K-pop debut with “Bomb,” which has received nearly 22 million views to date and hit #7 on Billboard’s World Digital Song Sales chart. A year later, AleXa released extended plays “Do or Die” and “Decoherence,” garnering wins for two of Korea’s most prestigious awards.
In 2021, AleXa released Y2K-inspired “ReviveR” with dance track “Xtra,” performed the national anthem for the Los Angeles Dodgers and became the first K-pop artist to host a fan meeting in the metaverse within the action-shooter game Scavengers.
She’s also performed on live stages in Singapore and Korea, but the biggest challenge for her on ASC was performing in front of a live audience.
“In Korea, I’ve only been able to perform in front of cameras for the last two years, so [I had to] readjust and calm my nerves in front of live people who are watching me with their eyes and not through a screen,” AleXa reveals.
Throughout the singing competition, AleXa sang her original song, “Wonderland.” Contestants pick one song to sing for every performance on the show, however, performances get elevated each week.
She says lyrically, her song is about breaking down a fantasy of someone leading you on, but it’s metaphorically taking you through Alice’s journey through wonderland. It resonates with her as an ode to her hometown.
“I kind of hone that in as a metaphor as the people of Oklahoma that shaped my life, those were my white rabbits leading me through my wonderland,” she shares.
Written by Moa Carlebecke, Andreas Carlsson, Albin Nordqvist, Ellen Ber and Bekuh Boom, “Wonderland” has been the most streamed song from the competition with over 2.7 million streams to date.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Stwf_fuSSI4
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AleXa describes the stars as the most “humble,” “friendliest,” and “coolest” people. She says they constantly gave her words of encouragement and she’s so grateful to have met them.
She says the best piece of advice she got from everyone on set, be it other contestants, staff, or her family, was to just go on stage and own it.
“I realized you know a performance is a performance, I’ve got to put everything I can into it but you know winning or losing is not the most important,” AleXa said. “It’s just how well you choose to express your energy to those watching.”
AleXa will perform her hit song “Wonderland” at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards this Sunday meanwhile her song will play on iHeartRadio stations all summer long.
As for what’s next, the musician says that she wants to continue doing more in person shows.
“I just want to pay back all the love and support that they gave me,” AleXa said while crossing fingers hoping a tour will happen soon.
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