By Yalan Zhu
Staff Writer
Naturally flowing through the music, alumni Nathaniel Leonard, stage name Leo, executes each practiced step under the watchful eyes of the judges and live audience, singing effortlessly to the beat. Leonard graduated in 2023 and was a semi-finalist on a global Filipino K-pop survival show, “Be The Next: 9 Dreamers.”
“The experience was exciting and very new, since usually companies want potential, but survival shows want idol-ready material,” Leonard said. “What I’ve learned from being in the industry is that everything is planned and hard work. Any small action or plan has a lot of thought and training behind it.”
The show featured 75 trainees from countries across Asia, Canada, and the U.S., who competed to be part of a new K-pop group consisting of nine members. The competitors were media-trained and taught new techniques. The environment was intense throughout as everyone was working towards the same dream.
“Some difficulties I’ve faced were just getting into the industry since I’m both American and Southeast Asian, not fully or partly East Asian,” Leonard said. “A lot of stereotypes were attributed to me because of that, and I’ve had to show them it was about my skill, not my nationality. Additionally, a lot of the time, the audition judges don’t accept me at first because I’m short, but they actually told me they changed their mind after seeing me dance.”
Leonard and his competitors were scored based on mentors’ evaluations and voting from global fans. Voting was conducted online through voting cycles, where fans signed up on a website or in an app to root for their favorites.
To build popularity, Leonard worked out for hours each day, focusing on endurance, cardio, and flexibility. Competitors would then dance for six hours, learning sometimes three routines a day and having meetings with producers. After dinner and a break, they had free time, where Leonard would practice his dance and vocal skills.
“I gained a lot of international fans that still support me today, and I’m super grateful for that,” Leonard said. “My goal is to share how much passion I have for music and performing to the world, and I hope they can get the same feeling I do watching me perform or create music!”
Leonard began dancing and singing in high school and took it seriously in his sophomore year. Tammi Alderman, the choir director, inspired him to pursue his dream, leading him to spend countless hours in the dance room. He emailed many companies his casting account, which included all of his information. If the companies were interested, they would hold online auditions with him and request videos of his dancing and singing. After a couple of months of meeting with the company scouts, Leonard met with the CEO and went in person for the final round of applications.
In order to balance schoolwork and his training hours, he finished his homework in the mornings and practiced until two in the morning. He applied to around 70 agencies before signing with his first, and looks up to producers like Softserveboy and idols like Bang Yedam.
“I’m currently still competing and hoping to join a group and complete my dream,” Leonard said. “To anybody who says they don’t have talent, that is not true; you need to have the drive. I’ve seen people with no previous training in dance improve their skill set to look like a dancer who’s been training for years by having the drive to practice every day and take every chance they can to learn whatever they want to improve at.”