Some artists wait decades for the breakthrough moment, and for others, everything seemingly happens overnight. For Audrey Nuna — the New Jersey-born artist whose music blends rap, pop, alternative and R&B — that coveted breakout moment came via a little movie called KPop Demon Hunters.
Nuna provided the singing voice of Mira, the rebellious main dancer of HUNTR/X, for the wildly successful animated film, which spawned a Billboard 200-topping soundtrack and numerous Billboard Hot 100 smashes, including the top 10 hit “How It’s Done” and the Grammy- and Oscar-winning chart-topper “Golden.” According to Luminate, “Golden” has collected over 971.8 million official on-demand U.S. streams, with the overall soundtrack — which has spent 54 weeks (and counting) at No. 1 on Top Soundtracks — boasting over 4 billion official streams.
The KPop Demon Hunters phenomenon whisked Nuna and fellow HUNTR/X singing voices EJAE and Rei Ami into a year-long whirlwind of late-night TV debuts, high-profile interviews, flashy photo shoots and a near-constant stream of performances. Now, Nuna is prioritizing recalibration; she’s not just aiming to merge her new fans with her existing supporters, but also re-aligning her understanding and appreciation for the craft of pop music.
“The biggest thing KPop Demon Hunters taught me is that it’s okay to fail and struggle through making your art,” she tells Billboard the day after playing Iowa’s Hinterland Music Festival. “As an artist, I’ve always tried to get things to feel good to me, but KPop Demon Hunters taught me structure and that, sometimes [when creating], there is a right answer, and we need to get to it. Almost like design-based thinking. [That experience] reinvigorated my love for pop, and the ideals and philosophies behind it.”
Trench, Nuna’s last pre-KPop Demon Hunters project, remains quite different from the smash soundtrack’s punchy, sugary pop. Released in 2024, Nuna’s debut album found her jumping from a Teezo Touchdown collaboration to an interpolation of Brandy and Monica’s “The Boy Is Mine,” making for an at-times dissonant soundscape that oscillates between lightness and darkness with impressive ease. Trench followed 2021’s A Liquid Breakfast, which arrived in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic alongside a Jack Harlow collaboration (“Comic Sans”).
Now signed to Republic Records, Nuna is launching her new era with “SuperHuman,” a high-octane, dance-infused rap banger that brings her back to the gritty, rap-forward energy of her earlier work. The song, which she crafted alongside Grammy-winning superproducer Cirkut, also marks Nuna’s second collaboration with video game developer Riot Games’ Valorant, a five v. five, character-based tactical first-person shooter game. “SuperHuman” — Nuna’s first solo release since Trench — will serve as an official track for the 2026 Valorant Champions Tour Pacific in Busan, South Korea.
Below, Billboard catches up with Nuna as she continues to wrap her head around the explosion of KPop Demon Hunters and begins crafting an album that blends her true sound with the energy billions of fans connected to via her Mira singing voice.
What do your festival sets look like now?
A lot of breathing new life into [my] older catalog — and that process has been really fun. [I’m playing] a lot of Trench songs, some Liquid Breakfast songs and a KPop Demon Hunters song as well. I also play “SuperHuman,” so it’s been cool seeing how people react to it live.
Which KPop Demon Hunters Song?
“How It’s Done.”
How did “SuperHuman” come together?
I made “SuperHuman” in my second-ever session with Cirkut. It was written during the time when all of the KPop Demon Hunters stuff was going absolutely bonkers. Trench felt like a time of looking from underground up at the sun, and the whole film moment felt like such a rise and redemption. At the same time, I told Bava and Madison Love — who I was also working with on the writing side — that I wanted to illustrate this longing to stay human through it all. I want to help people remember that our most important quality and biggest superpower is being human.
We wrote the song in three hours and had a solid demo by the end of the first. Even though he’s done all of these massive pop records, Cirkut has this weird, quirky angle on things that we really connected on. He’s as big a Daft Punk fan as I am, and I also noticed these books and figureheads of Gorillaz sitting in his studio — he’s a nerd, honestly. He got so excited when I showed him this string quartet remix of Björk’s “Hyperballad.” We definitely speak the same language in terms of the music we like to nerd out about.
How have you found that your creative process overall has shifted post-KPop Demon Hunters?
Seeing how this move affected people and how the process ended up translating into real-world impact was also inspiring. It put a fire under my buttocks of like… if we’re not making music to connect with people or make them feel more seen, why are we making it? Those kinds of questions impacted how much discomfort I’m willing to handle in my process. I tried a lot of different producers; some sessions were horrible, and others were amazing. And it was okay that things didn’t feel good all the time, because I wanted to graduate from artistry that’s all about my feelings to artistry that actually moves people.
Do you hope that “SuperHuman” serves as a reset or palate cleanser to properly introduce newer fans to the Audrey Nuna sound?
It’s more of a bridge. It’s a weird thing to go from a 19-year-old making alternative music to joining a project that becomes the biggest thing in your career, commercially, and makes people fall in love with your voice in a way — and through a character — you never expected.
I feel so connected to the character of Mira. We are so similar, and I really love and cherish who she is as a character, but at the same time, I am not Mira, and we’re not the same exact person. I hope “SuperHuman” builds a bridge for people to fuse whatever they connected with in the voice of the character with what I have to say as my own person. And, sonically, “SuperHuman” has the hard, dissonant [energy] of Trench, but also the pop sensibilities I was inspired by after working on KPop Demon Hunters.
Where are you sonically right now?
A conversation we had during the “SuperHuman” session was this idea of reharmonization and things feeling harmonically bright and dark at the same time. I also grew up in the Catholic church, so a lot of the harmonies on “SuperHuman” remind me of my roots. This process has been a lot of getting back to childhood basics. I have an urge to rewatch all my favorite childhood movies and listen to those scores and figure out what made me fall in love with those pieces of art.
I originally thought this project was going to be a reintroduction of myself to the world, which I felt was necessary, but I’ve realized it’s actually more important for this to be a reintroduction of myself to myself. I want to evolve from a cool, aesthetic artist to somebody who can tell stories people can relate to.
What can you tell us about the new project?
I want this music to sound as human as possible. I want to hear some mouth sounds in the background. I want to hear the imperfections in my voice. I want to know that a human being made this music. I’ve been trying different studios and really financially investing in my music. Does certain analog gear do anything for me or not? I want to find out. I like the idea that music takes time.
Why did this feel like the right song to share with Valorant?
If I were a 14-year-old kid playing Valorant and doing these crazy missions, I would just go so hard and get my high score of all time if I heard this song. I sound like a freaking grandma. [Laughs.] But it’s true! This is the first song of my own that I listened to in the gym — and I literally started going harder. Instead of 10 push-ups, I did 11 and a half or something. I also love performing this song. I just wanted to make a link between the virtual world and visceral body music.
What does rest look like for you?
I’m such an introvert, truly. I need my alone time. True rest to me is just sitting there doing nothing. There’s so much beauty in being alone and spending time with yourself. There’s also like this lady I found who’s an amazing masseuse… she does things to me that I didn’t know could be done. So much tension lives in your body, especially when you’re on the plane or on the stage thrashing your neck around for like an hour or every other day.
