{"id":101329,"date":"2025-08-28T04:41:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T04:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/101329\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T04:41:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T04:41:16","slug":"kpop-demon-hunters-singer-audrey-nuna-on-golden-oscars-buzz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/101329\/","title":{"rendered":"‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Singer Audrey Nuna on Golden, Oscars Buzz"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe jet lag is real for Audrey Nuna<\/a>. Fresh off an international tour that took her from Korea to Japan to Australia, the 26-year-old singer-rapper is still adjusting to time zones \u2014 including a memorable 3 a.m. gym session that left her wired until 8:00 in the morning. But the exhaustion is worth it: Nuna is riding the wave of \u201cGolden<\/a>,\u201d her breakout contribution to the \u201cKPop Demon Hunters<\/a>\u201d soundtrack that has become a viral global phenomenon.<\/p>\n

\n\tNuna provides the singing voice for Mira, one of three members of the fictional K-pop group Huntr\/X, alongside vocalists Ejae (who voices lead singer Rumi) and Rei Ami (who voices Zoey). Together, the trio performed \u201cGolden,\u201d which hit No. 1 on Spotify\u2019s Daily Top Songs Global chart and propelled the soundtrack album to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 \u2014 the biggest streaming week for a soundtrack in over three years.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I was recording these songs and working on this project, I distinctly remember telling my mom, oh, and this was in Korean, \u2018but like, oh, \u2018Eomma, I think that this movie is going to do really well,’\u201d Nuna recalls. \u201cI really did have a feeling that this project was going to do very well. I didn\u2019t know that it was just going to completely obliterate its own niche in the sense of just becoming so globally received.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Korean-American artist\u2019s instincts proved prescient. The song is being submitted for Academy Award consideration <\/a>by Netflix, a prospect that has Nuna both amazed and philosophical.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI feel like now I just have to go for the EGOT at this point,\u201d she says. \u201cI think God and the universe are so incredibly mysterious in that way, where I cannot believe that I could potentially be getting an Oscar nomination, and this project could potentially be getting an Oscar nomination before I\u2019ve even ever been considered for a Grammy nomination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe potential Oscar nod feels especially surreal given Nuna\u2019s namesake. \u201cI am actually named after Audrey Hepburn, who was known to be super multifaceted. She was both in theater and obviously in acting, and also did music. So I feel, as astounding as it all is, it weirdly it does feel weirdly prophetic in some ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Nuna, who blurs the lines between pop, R&B, and alternative on her genre-fluid anthems, the success of \u201cGolden\u201d has reinforced her belief in artistic boundary-pushing. \u201cI do think those lines are irrelevant. I do think genre is dead, in a sense,\u201d she says. \u201cI personally have always been interested in so many different types of music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGrowing up as one of the few Asian Americans in her New Jersey suburb, Nuna absorbed diverse influences \u2014 from Britney Spears and early K-pop groups like Wonder Girls to Whitney Houston, Destiny\u2019s Child, Childish Gambino, Radiohead, and Bj\u00f6rk. This eclectic musical education shaped her refusal to be categorized.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve never felt the need or desire to hide any of those kinds of interests,\u201d she explains. \u201cWhen this movie was pitched to me, it was this idea of not having to pick one part of yourself and being able to be your full self. That is really the reason why, when this role was pitched to me to be a part of this project, I immediately hopped on board.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat philosophy of embracing duality runs through Nuna\u2019s recent album \u201cTrench,\u201d split into two halves: \u201cSoft Skin\u201d and \u201cHard Feelings.\u201d The concept reflects polarities she\u2019s always felt drawn to \u2014 \u201cbeautiful chords and super harsh drum sounds\u201d or \u201cplayful double entendre wordplay with kind of these deep introspective topics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI wanted to show that they can coexist and they can sit side by side in a track list, whether that be sonically or thematically,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tNuna\u2019s recent international touring \u2014 her first time performing outside the U.S. \u2014 proved eye-opening. From the explosive energy at Korea\u2019s Pentaport Festival to more reserved but deeply connected audiences in Tokyo, she discovered that music truly transcends cultural boundaries.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe one thing that felt really constant was just this, like, true and deep connection that all these wonderful people who came to my show have with the music that I make. It was really cool to see how, regardless of, like, the body language, regardless of the level of noise in the audience, that this really always translates for me,\u201d she reflects. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe experience reinforced her belief in music\u2019s transformative power. \u201cIt\u2019s really restored my faith in this idea that music can change the way people think and can change the way people carry themselves in their everyday lives, regardless of the culture that you\u2019re brought up in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Nuna navigates this new phase of global recognition, she\u2019s learned to view vulnerability not as weakness, but as strength. Citing Bren\u00e9 Brown\u2019s \u201cAtlas of the Heart,\u201d she explains: \u201cYour level of belonging will only ever be as great as your level of self acceptance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor now, Nuna is still processing the whirlwind success of \u201cGolden,\u201d and \u201cKPop Demon Hunters,\u201d which is now Netflix\u2019s most-watched movie ever<\/a>. As the accolades continue to pour in and Oscar season approaches, one thing is clear: This genre-defying artist is just getting started.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI definitely feel like just overwhelmed with gratitude. I feel a sense of just extreme humility and just very honored to be a part of a project that is bringing Korean culture to such a different level of platform,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The jet lag is real for Audrey Nuna. Fresh off an international tour that took her from Korea…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,73668,63,134,16492,28936,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-101329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-audrey-nuna","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-golden","13":"tag-kpop-demon-hunters","14":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}