Billboard held its annual Women in Music gala Wednesday in LA, and the voices of HUNTR/X — Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami and EJAE — were on hand to receive the Women of the Year award.
After performing their Oscar-winning hit “Golden,” the three took the stage to speak about what the award means to them as women in the music industry.
“Working in music is not easy. And as an Asian woman, the lack of representation was obvious to me,” said EJAE. However, she noted, “Music doesn’t see race or gender. It only asks for the truth. … I realized that as a woman, our power has never been in fitting in, but it’s our resilience to speak our truth.”
“From when I first started releasing music back in 2019, to this moment now, I really never identified with the boxes that Korean-American women were expected to fit into,” said Audrey.
She added, “So to receive this honor and represent a song in a film that affirms its notion that the world needs women to show up as their fullest, most whole selves — their weirdest selves, their smelliest selves, whatever it is — it’s rewarding beyond words.”
“Being a woman in this male dominated industry is honestly a** sometimes,” Rei told the audience. “We have to work twice as hard, with a smile on our faces, as the world nitpicks every part of our being. … It seems utterly impossible to exist.”
She added, “Our ability to persevere and show up is an absolute superpower. So, thank you to all the women in this room for using your superpowers to inspire, lead, and protect. We are not too much. We are not too loud. We are exactly who the f*** we think we are.
You can watch the entire show on YouTube.
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