Within the sprawling Italian Neo-Renaissance architecture of lower Manhattan’s Cipriani 25 Broadway location, the Asia Society honored cultural giants at its 11th annual Asia Game Changer Awards in New York.
The Thursday evening event began with a cocktail hour, where the night’s honorees like HYBE founder and chairman Bang Si-Hyuk mingled in a VIP lounge, with a buzz of excitement following fellow honorees, including SNL cast member and future Wicked star Bowen Yang and journalist and reporter Christiane Amanpour, as well as presenters like ABC News Nightline anchor Juju Chang and Academy Award nominee Stephanie Hsu.
Bang was one of five honorees at this year’s Asia Game Changer Awards, where he was introduced through a video montage featuring him alongside photos and clips of HYBE artists like BTS, SEVENTEEN, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, fromis_9, ENHYPEN, LE SSERAFIM and KATSEYE, as well as a selection of his business and creative partners like JYP Entertainment founder J.Y. Park, HYBE America CEO Scooter Braun, and producer Andrew Watt.
After an introduction from Asia Society’s chairman Duncan Clark O.B.E and its COO Raj Rao, Bang walked up to the stage to accept his award as Jung Kook‘s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Seven” featuring Latto played (with the music cutting before any of its more explicit lyrics began).
In his acceptance speech, Bang spoke about the global nature of his past work, which has translated into HYBE’s international expansion. “I’ve been very fortunate to encounter an experience of cultures from a very early age,” he said via a translator. “Since the start of my career to today, I have and I continue to collaborate with musicians from very diverse backgrounds, and these experiences have taught me the importance of embracing and respecting diversity. And today as a music producer who continuously seeks to explore different genres, and also as the chairman of HYBE, which is a company that spans across Korea, the U.S., Japan, and Latin America. I believe that blending unique cultural elements can spark unparalleled creativity and fullness in music.”
Bang added that this mind-set feeds into what’s made K-pop connect so widely, as seen with the success of different HYBE acts. He said, “K-pop is beloved around the world not only because it tells stories that resonate universally with everyone but also because it brings together the best aspects of popular genres into a single song.”
The producer-executive shared examples like Jung Kook’s “Seven” drawing inspiration from U.K. garage while featuring rapper Latto; LE SSERAFIM’s “Unforgiven” sampling late Italian composer Ennio Morricone‘s “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” while having Chic‘s Nile Rodgers contributing guitar; and also that when TOMORROW X TOGETHER collaboration with Brazilian diva Anitta on “Back for More,” Spotify reported a “surge in the first-time listeners of the group.”
Along with a performance by Indian-American dhol drummer and composer Sunny Jain, the Asia Game Changer Awards also honored Oscar-winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, plus the Asian American Foundation, the national organization advocating for safety and prosperity in the AANHPI community.
In the past, the Asia Society‘s Asia Game Changer Awards have honored other South Korean pop-culture leaders like SM Entertainment founder Lee Soo Man (who spoke about SM acts like BoA, TVXQ!, Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, EXO and NCT in his 2016 acceptance speech), as well as BTS and CJ Group’s Vice Chairwoman Miky Lee (both honored in 2020 and accepted with pre-recorded videos).
