In an excellent new interview in Vulture, mysterious EGOT contender HER (real name Gabi Wilson) has opened up a lot — like, a lot — about her seemingly rapid career ascent and the fact that you might think she’s an industry plant. Wilson has won four Grammys (out of 13 nominations), an Oscar for Best Original Song, she opened this year’s Super Bowl, and she is set to appear in the upcoming Color Purple movie musical, among other things. But the 24-year-old is famously unknowable, wearing sunglasses to every public event and rarely addressing anything to do with her personal life, claiming that she wants fans’ focus to be on the music.
“We live in a world where it’s full package — how do you look, who are you dating, who is she?” Wilson told Vulture. “We’ve lost sight of what’s important, which is the music.”
HER, who has also curated the lineup for the bi-costal Lights On Festival, had this to say about that whole “industry plant” thing. “With social media, people think they know everything about success. People see my success now, and they don’t understand the sacrifices, the 15-hour days in the studio, the pressure from my parents to go to college.”
She adds: “Most of the time, people think success is followers and crazy BTS popularity, like if you’re not Beyonce, you’re not famous. ‘Oh, you’ll get there one day.’ Like, everybody doesn’t want to be Beyonce! For me, I grinded it out kinda like a rapper: I dropped a mixtape, nobody knew who I was, it was a very slow build, and here we are now. The awards shows and all that stuff, that was surprising to me. But I realized, Oh my gosh, I’ve arrived, and in a different way. You don’t need some No. 1 radio single — even though I got that!”
There you have it! Check out the full interview here.
