‘KPop Demon Hunters’ wins two Oscars in historic night for K-pop

“Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters Wins Best Original Song at the 98th Academy Awards

The Netflix animated hit KPop Demon Hunters capped a dominant awards season on Sunday night, winning two Oscars at the 98th Academy Awards — Best Original Song for “Golden” and Best Animated Feature — marking the first time a K-pop song has won an Academy Award.

A Historic Night for K-Pop

Songwriter EJAE, who provides the singing voice for the film’s protagonist Rumi, took the stage alongside five co-writers including Mark Sonnenblick, Teddy Park, and others to accept the Best Original Song award. Fighting back tears, she told the Dolby Theatre audience, “Thank you so much to the Academy for this insane award. As a child, I faced ridicule for my love of K-pop, but now everyone is singing along to our song and embracing the Korean lyrics. I am incredibly proud.”eonline

The moment was not without controversy — the songwriting team’s acceptance speech was cut off before all contributors could speak, according to E! News and Deadline. Earlier in the ceremony, the vocalists behind the film’s fictional girl group HUNTR/X — EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami — performed “Golden” live to an audience waving colorful lightsticks in a scene reminiscent of a K-pop concert.bbc

An Awards Season Juggernaut

Directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, along with producer Michelle LM Wong, accepted the Best Animated Feature award, defeating Disney’s Zootopia 2, Pixar’s Elio, Neon’s Arco, and France’s Little Amélie or the Character of Rain. Kang, a first-time Oscar nominee, dedicated the win “for Korea and for Koreans everywhere,” adding, “Those of you who look like me, I deeply apologize for the delay in seeing representation like this in film. But it’s finally here.”bbc

The film, produced by Sony Pictures Animation for Netflix, had already swept its way through awards season, winning Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, and Annie Awards. “Golden” also won Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 68th Grammy Awards in February, becoming the first K-pop track to win a Grammy. According to Billboard, the song spent eight weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in 2025.gizmodo

From Rejection to the Oscar Stage

EJAE’s path to the podium was shaped by years of setback. She trained for over a decade at SM Entertainment, one of South Korea’s leading K-pop agencies, before being dropped without ever debuting as a performer. She later moved to the United States, studied at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and reinvented herself as a songwriter, eventually penning hits for major K-pop acts including Red Velvet’s “Psycho.” In a pre-Oscars interview with Vanity Fair, she described songwriting as her “salvation” after being let go.vanityfair

KPop Demon Hunters, which follows a K-pop girl group that uses their voices to battle demons, has become Netflix’s most-watched film ever and spawned a sequel now in development.hollywoodreporter