Who’s The HU?

The HU is a Mongolian heavy metal band formed in 2016. With traditional Mongolian instrumentation, including the Morin khuur, Tovshuur and Mongolian throat singing, the band calls their style of music “hunnu rock”, hu inspired by the Hunnu, an ancient Mongolian empire, known as The Huns in western culture. Some of the band’s lyrics include old Mongolian war cries and poetry.

Two videos on YouTube released in Autumn 2018, “Yuve Yuve Yu – 28 September” and “Wolf Totem – 16 November”, had together garnered over 76 million views by May 2020. On 11 April 2019, “Wolf Totem” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hard Rock Digital Song Sales, making The Hu the first Mongolian musical act to top a Billboard chart. In addition, “Yuve Yuve Yu” reached No. 7 on the same chart while “Wolf Totem” debuted at No. 22 on Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart.

On 17 May 2019, The Hu met Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga, who congratulated the band for their accomplishments in promoting the country.

On 6 June 2019, the band released the lyric video for their third single “Shoog Shoog”. In June and July 2019, they performed twenty-three concerts in twelve European countries. The band released the music video for their fourth single “The Great Chinggis Khaan” on 23 August 2019.

The Hu released its first album on 13 September 2019. The album’s title is The Gereg,which is the term used for a diplomatic passport from the time of Genghis Khan. The Gereg was internationally released under Eleven Seven Records. The band embarked on their first North American tour from September 2019 through December 2019. On October 4, the band released a new version of “Yuve Yuve Yu”, featuring new vocals by Danny Case of From Ashes to New. In November, their song “Black Thunder”/”Sugaan Essena” was featured in the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. On 13 December, the band released a remix of “Wolf Totem”, featuring Papa Roach lead vocalist Jacoby Shaddix. This version will be featured in the upcoming horror film The Retaliators. On 1 May 2020, a remix of “Song of Women” featuring Lzzy Hale of Halestorm was released online.

On 27 November 2019, The Hu were awarded the highest state award for Mongolia, the Order of Genghis Khan, for promoting Mongolian culture around the world.[17]

On 28 June 2020, The Hu uploaded their COVID-19 relief effort fundraising concert on YouTube.

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