Mongolian Rock Band THE HU To Receive Highest State Award

According to Xinhua, Mongolian rock sensation THE HU, who released their debut album, "The Gereg", via Better Noise Music in September, will be granted with the Order of Genghis Khan, the country's highest state award. Mongolian president Khaltmaa Battulga personally decided to confer the order on THE HU, Office of the President of Mongolia announced Monday.

The order is presented to Mongolian citizens who have made great contributions to strengthening national unity, deeply studying the history and culture of Mongolia, and familiarizing other countries with Mongolian culture.

Chief of staff of the President of Mongolia, Zandaakhuu Enkhbold, told reporters: "On the National Pride Day, the president will award the highest state honor to THE HU band for promoting Mongolian culture in the world."

The National Pride Day is a holiday in honor of the 857th anniversary of the birth of Genghis Khan. This festive date this year falls on November 27.

THE HU stands for the Mongolian root word for human being, inspiring the band's original style of music that it calls "Hunnu Rock." The group pulls inspiration from the Hunnu, an ancient Mongolian empire better known as The Huns in western culture. Their music is deeply embedded with their ancient culture, even integrating old Mongolian war cries and poetry into their lyrics.

The group was founded in 2016 in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia by their producer Dashka, along with band members Gala, Jaya, Temka and Enkush. Together they create rock music with traditional Mongolian instrumentation such as the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle),tovshuur (Mongolian guitar),tumur khuur (jaw harp),guttural throat singing built around the pillars of heavy rock: distorted guitars, bombastic drums, and aggressive rhythms. All four members have earned Bachelor's or higher degrees in classical music and have gained several years of touring experience throughout Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Having achieved phenomenal success with three videos that combined have over 45 million views to date — "Wolf Totem", "Yuve Yuve Yu" and the latest, "The Great Chinggis Khaan" — the band garnered viral success and has achieved international critical acclaim. They've also got themselves a famous fan, with Elton John recently playing them and raving about the band on his "Rocket Hour" Beats 1 radio show. Playing "Yuve Yuve Yu", Elton commented: "You know I'm crazy about a Mongolian band called THE HU — it's just the greatest new thing I've heard in a long time. They use traditional Mongolian instruments… It's absolutely fantastic."

THE HU is:

Gala: lead throat singer and morin khuur
Enkush: lead morin khuur and throat singer
Jaya: jaw harp, tsuur, flute, and throat singer
Temka: tovshuur