diff --git a/srcpkgs/awesome/template b/srcpkgs/awesome/template
index 3436157728a..3f559ea1f87 100644
--- a/srcpkgs/awesome/template
+++ b/srcpkgs/awesome/template
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ pkgname=awesome
 version=4.3
 revision=4
 build_style=cmake
+build_helper="qemu"
 configure_args="-DSYSCONFDIR=/etc"
 conf_files="/etc/xdg/awesome/rc.lua"
 hostmakedepends="ruby-asciidoctor ImageMagick lgi lua pkg-config xmlto"
@@ -18,10 +19,6 @@ homepage="http://awesomewm.org"
 distfiles="https://github.com/awesomeWM/awesome/releases/download/v${version}/awesome-${version}.tar.xz"
 checksum=78264d6f012350b371e339127aca485260bc0aa935eff578ba75ce1a00e11753
 
-if [ "$CROSS_BUILD" ]; then
-	hostmakedepends+=" qemu-user-static"
-fi
-
 pre_configure() {
 	# Russian manpages fail to build.
 	vsed -i -e "s|es fr de ru|es fr de|g" CMakeLists.txt