5 Foreign K-Pop Idols Who Were Selected To Be The Leader Of Their Group

Many would assume that a Korean member would be selected to be the leader of their respective K-Pop group, but this isn’t always the case. There have been a few K-Pop groups who chose to have a foreign leader. Here’s a list of some K-Pop groups who happened to have a foreign leader.

1. Victoria [f(x)]

Victoria was one of the first Chinese idols to debut in an SM Entertainment group, and she was also one of the first foreign leaders seen in K-Pop. SM Entertainment usually selects the eldest member to be the leader of their respective group, so this might have been a big reason why Victoria was selected to be the leader of f(x). Yet, it was the correct decision as Victoria has shown her incredible leadership many times.

2. Weiyang (O21)

O21 is now disbanded, but their leader made some K-Pop history with her debut. Weiyang was the first Filipina K-Pop idol to debut and was also the first Filipina K-Pop leader. After O21 disbanded, Weiyang started to focus more on her modeling career.

3. Alex (BP Rania)

Alex is the first African-American person to debut in a K-Pop girl group. Alex had originally debuted in Rania in 2015, but the group went through a couple of member changes a year later. Once these changes happened, the group’s name was changed to BP Rania. Alex was then selected to be the leader of the group.

4. Takuya (Cross Gene)

Takuya was born in Moriya, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. He debuted in Cross Gene in 2012 and was selected to be the leader of the group.  While Takuya was the original leader of Cross Gene, he decided to give up his position to Shin due to the burdens he was facing.

5. Yixuan (UNIQ)

UNIQ promotes both in South Korea and China, and have 2 leaders due to this. Yixuan is the leader whenever UNIQ is promoting in China, as he is Chinese.