Hwasa Got More Congratulations from Jensen Huang's Shoutout Than a Music Show No. 1 Win

When NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang called out Hwasa as a fan on Korean variety show You Quiz on the Block last June, the congratulatory messages that flooded her phone outnumbered anything she received after a music show number-one win. The problem was she had no idea who he was.

Hwasa shared the story on the SBS variety program My Ugly Duckling, airing on the 9th, during a relaxed outing with model and TV personality Han Hye-jin. The two have been close since appearing on a variety show together years ago, and Han had arranged a "special healing day" for Hwasa, who had been deep in a world tour schedule. That included a trip to Namdaemun Market for bath products (Hwasa, famously, travels with her own personal bath basket) and a stop at her go-to restaurant Deokja Jjim, where she worked through soy sauce crab bibimbap and an impressively large serving of the restaurant's signature steamed dish without leaving much on the table.

But the segment that cut through was Hwasa talking about the Jensen Huang moment. On You Quiz on the Block, Huang had been direct and enthusiastic: "I love Hwasa's music very much. She is incredibly charming." He specifically named Good Goodbye and her then-new single So Cute, prompting host Yoo Jae-suk to joke on air, "Hwasa, So Cute is going to blow up again. Lucky you. Chairman Jensen Huang even knows your new song."

Hwasa's honest reaction on My Ugly Duckling was that she didn't follow stocks or business news closely, so when the messages started pouring in, she wasn't immediately sure what was happening. "I didn't understand the situation at first," she said. "I received more congratulatory texts than when I hit number one on a music show."

Once she put the pieces together, she was struck by how specifically Huang seemed to know her work. "It was unbelievable, to the point where I thought maybe he had studied K-pop separately," she said. What convinced her the praise was genuine was watching him mention her again and again right up until he left Korea. That's when she decided to write him a letter and send it along with one of her albums.

The letter was warm and a little self-deprecating in that distinctly Hwasa way. She said she wrote something along the lines of: "I didn't know who you were, but the simple fact that you are someone who loves me makes me so happy."

It's a small story, but it lands. Hwasa has never really performed being grateful in the polished, rehearsed way some artists do, and the image of one of K-pop's most confident performers being genuinely puzzled by a Silicon Valley shoutout, then responding with a handwritten note, feels very much like her.