As the film’s megahit song Golden looks likely to sweep everything in awards season, its singer Ejae explains why she’s ready to step out from behind her animated alter ego
‘T
he directors were crying, the producer was crying, and I thought: Oh my gosh, this is an incredible musical world.” It was February 2025, and Ian Eisendrath was conducting an orchestra through the final flourishes for the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack. He knew that the team had built something special – “but I never thought it would be like this,” he laughs, marvelling at what came next.
Mere weeks after its release in June, the animated film – about Korean girl band Huntr/x who battle soul-hungry demons through song – became Netflix’s most-watched title ever. The film’s soundtrack, a fleet of emotionally charged, devilishly catchy hits crafted by real K-pop heavyweights, became a platinum-rated phenomenon all its own.
The film made history when four of its tracks hit the US Top 10 simultaneously, and soaring lead single Golden was the world’s most-streamed new song last year. It has already very appropriately won a Golden Globe and is up for best international song at the Brit awards. Not since the Lion King’s Circle of Life has a song from an animated film been nominated for the Academy award for best song and song of the year at the Grammys. This weekend, if the bookies are right and Golden wins both, it will be the first original song from an animation ever to do so.
