Z Stars recently performed in India.

The universally appealing K-pop music has reached millions of youngsters across borders. The South Korean pop genre’s growing popularity, in a way, is rooted in how it blends various international music forms with the traditional Korean style. No wonder its fans are rising day by day in India too, so much that two Indian musicians are now also a part of a K-pop band.

We are talking about the band Z-Stars, who recently concluded their music tour in India. The band consists of seven Z-Boys and Z-Girls respectively, selected through auditions from across various Asian countries — Indonesia, Japan, India, Philippines, Vietnam and others — with the aim to create a global band incorporating multiple languages and music styles.

The band debuted last year in February, and is becoming increasingly popular among K-pop lovers.

Z-Stars

The band spoke to indianexpress.com about their journey as a music group and the response they got from their fans in India. Excerpts:

How was your visit to India? Did you get a chance to visit tourist places, enjoy Indian delicacies?

India was great! The support and love we received was overwhelming. We could not visit any tourist spots during our visit here but we ate a lot of Indian food! We tried different kinds of curries, including butter chicken with naan. We even tried dosa and some really interesting tikkas that Sid (Siddhant Arora, band member from India) introduced us to.

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What kind of response did you get from the audience in India?

It was phenomenal! We were not sure of the response we would receive in India but with every performance, be it at Vh1 Supersonic or at Hard Rock Cafe, we met fans that sang along with us and knew all about our music. A huge shoutout to our GalaxZ (name of Z-Stars fans) in India for all their love and support!

Z-Stars performing at Vh1 Supersonic 2020

Your band has members from several countries. How is that influencing the kind of music you are making?

Well for starters, we’ve started to learn a little bit of each other’s languages. Including some songs! In fact, on stage at Vh1 Supersonic, we joined Priyanka (Priyanka Mazumdar, band member from India) in singing “Tum hi ho” which she taught us. Our last song, It’s Christmas!, showcased seven different languages. We aim to create more multilingual songs as we continue to grow together.

You all auditioned for the band. Tell us how your journey has been like.

All of our journeys began with auditions. We were then brought to South Korea to train as part of the Korean K-pop training system. The journey has been intense, requiring us to put in a lot of effort but it has definitely been worth it. We’ve grown so much since we first got to Korea and hope to keep getting better.

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K-pop is known to involve rigorous training, strict diet and discipline. How are you managing all that? Can you give us details of your training process and how it helped you?

The Korean Pop training system is rigorous. We train for most of our day, either to dance or to sing. Our diet is always under check and we are supported very well. The system helps you grow, while teaching you the importance of hard work. We are grateful to our company (Zenith Media Contents) for the support.

Future projects?

As of now we are focused on our next singles. We are working hard on our music and should have something new soon.