The songwriters from KPop Demon Hunters got cut off while accepting their Academy Award at the 2026 Oscars — but they finished their speech later on Sunday night.

The composers behind the hit song “Golden” spoke with the media in the press room at the Dolby Theatre after they were unceremoniously played off the stage in the middle of their remarks at the awards show.

Songwriter Yu-Han Lee, whose portion of the speech ended after just a few words, finished thanking his loved ones and collaborators in the press room. “I would like to thank our families, and 24, and our fellow IDO members,” he said. “This is an incredible honor.”

Kpop superstars Rumi, Mira and Zoey in ‘KPop Demon Hunters’.

Netflix

Co-composer Mark Sonnenblick also expressed his appreciation for the award. “My family, some of them here tonight, my husband has a booster tonight,” he said. “Everybody [who] worked on this movie, all the animators, it was a real collaboration across the board.

He continued, “Part of the movie is about looking at someone that you had been taught to hate and to fear, and starting to trust, [or] maybe, you know, love them.”

Sonnenblick also thanked the film’s fans, “who loved this movie and made it to what it is,” as well as “everyone else who worked on the soundtrack, everyone else who sang on the soundtrack across the board.”

He concluded, “A movie is like a village, and we’re lucky to be up here right now, but there’s so many people who have made this what it is. So thank you!”

The two composers won the award alongside fellow songwriters Ejae, Joong Gyu Kwak, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seo, and Teddy Park. Ejae was the only member of the musical team who delivered a full speech during the Oscars broadcast.

“Thank you to the Academy for this insane award,” Ejae said during the ceremony. “Growing up, people made fun of me for liking K-pop, but now everyone’s singing our song and all the Korean lyrics. I’m so proud. And I realized, like the song, this award is not about success, it’s about resilience, and I’m just so grateful to our team.”

Yuhan, EJAE, ZHUN, Mark Sonnenblick, NHD and 24 at the 2026 Academy Awards in Los Angeles on March 15, 2026.

Kevin Winter/Getty

The musician went on to thank her family and the team behind KPop Demon Hunters before ceding the mic to Lee, who only said, “I would like to thank—” before the orchestra played the group offstage.

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The KPop Demon Hunters songwriters beat composers from Sinners, Train Dreams, Viva Verdi, and Diane Warren: Relentless to take home the Oscar gold. The movie also won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, beating out the likes of Zootopia 2, Elio, Arco, and Little Amélie or the Character of Rain.

Reporting by Daniela Avila.