KAO_GRACE When we think of K-pop, we might first imagine Korean performers and songwriters. But if we pay attention to the songwriting credits, we can see many songwriters from the West. Of course, even exploring what the West refers to overlooks the complexities of migration and the existence of the diasporic population.America is seen as a land of immigrants. Currently, about 15 percent of the US population is foreign-born and 25 percent of children have at least one foreign-born parent. While we may not think of Sweden the same way, approximately 14 percent of the Swedish population is foreign-born and one-third of the population has at least one foreign-born parent. In other words, like Americans, Swedes also originate from many ethnic groups.I recently spoke to Julie Yu, who is of Chinese descent and born and raised in Sweden. Growing up in Sweden, she was often the only Chinese kid in her school, but through her family friends she felt that there was always a Chinese community.She explained, “My parents were studying for their Ph.D.s and got to know a lot of other Chinese people that moved to the same city. Eventually they all had kids, and we were in the same age group, so we continued to hang out.” She also attended extracurricular Chinese-language schools — something that many of my friends in San Francisco also did.Yu has lived her entire life in Sweden, but travels to China to visit extended family. She has written songs for K-pop acts such as Nmixx, Zerobaseone, Kep1er and NouerA, as well as J-pop groups such as NiziU, Exile Tribe and Tsubaki Factory. She is a topliner, which means she primarily works on the melody. She also does some voice acting — in Swedish but for Asian-ethnic characters. She maintains a full-time job in finance that began after she received her bachelor's degree in Economics from Lund University. I spoke to Yu about her path to K-pop and how her ethnic background affected her journey.Yu began her career as a singer. She competed in local competitions as a child and that eventually led her to "Swedish Idol," where she placed among the top 20 in 2016. From that time onward, she decided that compared to performing, songwriting was “a much better fit for me.”Her singing voice was compatible with K-pop singers and that led her to working with a well-known Swedish songwriter and producer Erik Lidbom, from whom she began learning how to put a song together. Her Chinese Swedish background helped, because, “going into K-pop and J-pop in the beginning — it actually gave me confidence, because it was a market very close to China. I felt comfortable working with Korean and Japanese producers.”Yu learned to love K-pop and later J-pop when following the leads issued by entertainment companies. Prior to her songwriting career, she was familiar with K-pop acts Girls' Generation and Psy.Because she is a topliner, she starts by working with a producer who has already begun working on a track. They discuss what leads the track, what might match that, then she “records the melody ideas directly with the microphone.” After different melody flows are integrated, they think about how to incorporate the rap sections.When I asked why there was a compatibility between K-pop and Swedish songwriters, she remarked, “In Sweden with ABBA and The Cardigans and also having, like, Max Martin produce all those songs ... there's a certain melody style that is quite similar to K-pop.” Fittingly, The Cardigans’ “Lovefool” was sampled on Ive’s “Off the Record.”In addition to the importance of her Chinese identity, Yu talked about the impact of the Eurovision Song Contest, a well-known European pop music competition held by the European Broadcasting Union that has taken place since 1956.ABBA won the pan-European event with “Waterloo” in 1974, becoming Sweden’s first winner. She explained, “Eurovision is the biggest competition for us every year, and I have watched this since I was 4 or 5. So all those songs and the melodies have really shaped my melody sound today.”Because she works in both K-pop and J-pop, I asked her about the differences between the two. She joked that, “J-pop is like K-pop on crack, haha.”Actually, “it’s a lot more intense, more melodic than K-pop and cheesier too. There’s a lot happening on a J-pop track and it's a lot busier.” She explained that J-pop chords are jazzier while K-pop utilizes chords that are more commonly found in “the American sound.”So, what’s in store for her future? Yu hopes to make further forays into the Chinese market, following her first Chinese release last year.She is an active participant in a Swedish songwriters’ association and received an award for “fastest-growing songwriter” from the group. Yu is an important reminder of the multiethnic identities of K-pop and other artists worldwide.- - -Grace KaoGrace Kao is an IBM professor of sociology and professor of ethnicity, race and migration at Yale University. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. — Ed.