The KPop Demon Hunters song “Golden” was named best original song at the Oscars Sunday night, but the bad news about the historic win was that the songwriters were played off before they could finish their speeches. That’s why backstage EJAE was quick to thank her fellow HUNTR/X members, who joined her for the performance of the song on the telecast.
“I needed to thank them onstage,” EJAE told reporters backstage. “I didn’t get to because they just cut us off, but [I] wanted to thank Rei Ami and Audrey Nuna. They killed it with their singing and they’re just incredible people and I love, love them so much.”
“Golden” is the first K-pop song ever to be nominated for an Oscar, and six of the song’s seven cowriters are the first South Koreans to win in the best original song category.
“This is crazy. We all worked so, so hard and it was such a collaborative effort,” EJAE said of the win, noting that she considers the film’s now Oscar-winning directors, Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, to have been part of that effort.
“We’re all just so, so happy that the hard work paid off,” she added.
You can find hints of that collaborative spirit in the lyrics of “Golden,” said co-writer Mark Sonnenblick.
“It’s not ‘I’m going up up up,’ it’s ‘we’re going up, up, up,'” he noted, adding that he felt the “fans who have loved this movie” are also part of that “deep collaboration,” along with “everyone else who sang on the soundtrack.”
“A movie is like a village. … [T]here’s so many people who have made this what it is. So thank you everyone.”
Meanwhile, KPop Demon Hunters 2 has been confirmed, but there’s no scheduled release date.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
