Lexie Liu on Blending Music Genres, Traveling Into Outer Space, and Singing in Both English and Mandarin
During the month of June, Teen Vogue is celebrating rising music stars who transcend genres. Through in-depth profiles, we're highlighting artists who make songs our readers should know and will love.
Name: Lexie Liu
Age: 20
Hometown: Changsha, China
Listening through ethereal singer Lexie Liu’s debut EP 2030 blasts you off to all sorts of musical destinations, all the while showing off the artist’s prowess for a variety of genres. The top track “Nada” blends trap and hip-hop, the perfect banger to kick off the project. Her song “Hat Trick,” which was inspired by the literary classic The Great Gatsby, drips with sensuality as she switches between English and Mandarin. Then she enters the world of dream pop with “Love and Run,” a perfect anthem for moody daydreams about exes.
“I’ve never thought of balancing these in a meticulous way like calculating the proportions of each genre in one song, or which part of the song/album should be more inclined to which genre,” Lexie tells Teen Vogue. “I’m just a simple music lover who’s influenced by these genres. I open up my mind to sing whatever comes to my head and lips. It all came pretty naturally I’d say.”
Lexie first gained recognition back in 2015 when she placed fourth on K-pop Star 5, a South Korean reality TV competition show where three entertainment agencies search for the next biggest K-Pop stars. Following that gauntlet, Lexie returned to television in 2018 on something a bit different: The Rap of China, a Chinese rap competition series. The shooting schedules for these shows had Lexie and the competitors spending hours and hours preparing for performances on short time frames. Those experiences taught Lexie to push herself out of her comfort zone and just how integral practice can be.
Since her stints on these television series, Lexie has been busy carving out her own identity as an artist. She released 2030 in February 2019, which showed off that artistic vision. Beyond the EP being lauded for its various sounds, much of the discussion was also how Lexie expertly and elegantly flows between English and Mandarin on several tracks. Seeing how people reacted had a teaching surprise for Lexie.
“I learned to not let languages become boundaries of my own mind when creating music. For instance, I used to think if a song on the EP has more Mandarin than English, I would automatically expect that it might not work in the English-speaking countries and regions as well as the English-dominated songs,” she says. “However, I was wrong about that. Lots of people from all around the world love ‘Sleep Away’ even if they don’t understand my lyrics without translations. They can still feel my heart and the vibe. Music is something that connects people through feelings. It’s beyond the barrier of languages.”
It’s an interesting thing to keep in mind as mixed-language music becomes more and more popular, from Justin Bieber on “Despacito” to K-pop phenomenon BTS. Lexie sees this trend as a positive thing — despite the fact that people can be separated by the country they live in or politics, they can connect through music. She’s also extremely thankful for the platform to be able to go back and forth between these worlds, which gives her a more well-rounded perspective. It has presented itself as a welcomed challenge, trying to combine these languages into an art form.
Lexie says she uses Mandarin for more poetic, delicate ways to express subtle feelings or imbue the Eastern beauty of words. Meanwhile, her play with English is much more direct and blunt, making a statement with a sassy or empowered attitude.
Beyond music, Lexie has also had a deep interest in the fashion world. So it was a dream come true for her when she was asked to be part of a Saint Laurent campaign. As for when she’s not making music or being photographed for editorials, Lexie loves chilling at home with Netflix and ordering a bunch of different kinds of foods to get away from the noises and anxieties of fast-paced city life.
Speeding into the future, Lexie says her next project incorporates a variety of concepts and emotions while representing the delicacy and complexity of each individual person.
Lexie reveals, “I would say it sounds like what I would wanna put on my spaceship playlist if I ever travel and explore outer-space.”
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
