KPop Demon Hunters Made Oscar History — And It's a Win for Every Korean

Nine months ago, KPop Demon Hunters was just a Netflix movie that broke a streaming record. Now it's something bigger: the film that made Oscar history for Korean cinema, and turned three fictional K-pop idols into the reason a Korean-American songwriter and a Korean-Canadian director now have their names permanently in Academy Awards history.

The sweep

At the 98th Academy Awards, KPop Demon Hunters won Best Animated Feature — making co-director Maggie Kang the first woman of Asian descent ever to win an Oscar in that category, alongside co-director Chris Appelhans and producer Michelle L.M. Wong. Minutes later, the film's breakout single "Golden" won Best Original Song, making its songwriting team the first South Koreans ever to win in that category.

That capped a run that already included Best Animated Feature at the Golden Globes, the Critics' Choice Awards, and the Producers Guild Awards, plus 10 Annie Awards — animation's own biggest night. And back in February, "Golden" had already made a different kind of history at the Grammys: Best Song Written for Visual Media, the first Grammy ever won by a K-pop song.

Meet EJAE, the voice behind "Golden"

If you've heard "Golden" — and by now, you have, whether you meant to or not — you've heard EJAE. Born Kim Eun-jae in Seoul, she spent ten years as an SM Entertainment trainee starting at age 11 and was never approved to debut. She left, enrolled at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and rebuilt her career from the other side of the booth — writing and producing for Red Velvet, aespa, TWICE, and LE SSERAFIM, among others.

In KPop Demon Hunters, she's the singing voice of Rumi and a co-writer of "Golden." Her Grammy and Oscar wins for that one song make her one of the most decorated Korean-American songwriters in music history — a two-decade story that didn't start with the debut she wanted, and ended up bigger than it.

Why this is bigger than one movie

Every big number this film racked up — 325+ million Netflix views, eight weeks at #1 on the Hot 100, four songs in the Hot 100's top ten at once — was already remarkable. But awards season is what turns "biggest K-pop-adjacent hit ever" into "the night Korean animation, Korean songwriting, and Korean-American storytelling all won at the same ceremony." That's not a Koreatown story or an LA story. It's a moment every Korean household, wherever it is, gets to claim.

KPop Demon Hunters is still streaming on Netflix. If the trophies are new to you, the songs won't be — you've probably been singing them for over a year already.