\n The movie, the most-watched Netflix original film ever, centers around a Korean girl group that hunts demons with their songs to protect the world. Ejae co-wrote and recorded demos for the chart-topping soundtrack \u2014 most notably its uplifting anthem, \u201cGolden,\u201d which won a Golden Globe for \u201cBest Original Song\u201d this month. It\u2019s up for four Grammys in just a few days and an Oscar in March. (Ejae is also the singing voice for the film\u2019s purple-haired protagonist, Rumi.)\n <\/p>\n
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\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty rare for someone like Ejae, who\u2019s a former trainee, to really blow up this big,\u201d said Claire Marie Lim, an associate professor at Berklee College of Music and K-pop expert.\n <\/p>\n
\n Lim, who was a K-pop trainee<\/a> around the same time as Ejae, said most people she knew left the professional music world if they didn\u2019t debut as K-pop idols. Some current K-pop stars might be involved in songwriting and production, but it was more unusual a decade ago \u2014 especially for former trainees.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe attitude at the time, like 10-plus years ago, was: \u2018You\u2019re meant to sing, dance, rap, model, do a lot of forward-facing things, but not really take part in the creative process behind the scenes,\u2019\u201d Lim said. Ejae was pursuing a \u201csuper rare\u201d path that she would essentially have to create herself.\n <\/p>\n \n Ironically, the movie that made Ejae a star is an ode to the Korean pop music machine that disillusioned her all those years ago.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d reflects how K-pop artists, also known as idols, bask in the glow of light sticks and fan chants<\/a>. But in real life, their fame comes with a high price: harsh beauty standards, 3 am call times for broadcasts, public backlash for dating and more.\n <\/p>\n \n Even becoming a K-pop star often requires years of intense training, spending \u201chours a day dancing and singing and rapping,\u201d Lim said.\n <\/p>\n \n On \u201cThe Zach Sang Show,\u201d Ejae described<\/a> going to vocal and dance practices after school and staying until midnight. (She also wasn\u2019t the first in her family to pursue a career in entertainment; her grandfather was a famous actor and producer in South Korea in the 1960s and \u201870s.)\n <\/p>\n \n The massive K-pop machine<\/a> is notorious for its artist development and production programs. Agencies meticulously plan out public debuts, coordinate every detail of schedules and fan interactions and even oversee many parts of stars\u2019 personal lives.\n <\/p>\n \n Trainees are also heavily scrutinized for their skills and appearance, often starting when they\u2019re very young. Ejae was 11 years old when she joined SM Entertainment, one of South Korea\u2019s biggest entertainment companies.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of competition, a lot of critiquing. There were competitions within the training system where I\u2019ve failed a lot and was rejected a lot,\u201d Ejae told CNN. \u201cI\u2019d constantly been hearing, \u2018You\u2019re not good enough, you\u2019re not good enough.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n When her contract ended in 2015, Ejae was in her early 20s \u2014 already old for a K-pop trainee.\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s an exceptional case when agencies do debut older idols, \u201cand I didn\u2019t meet that exception,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n Ejae described her departure from SM as a breakup: a mutual breakup, but heartbreaking nonetheless. She had spent her formative years enmeshed with the company, and now she was on her own.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do with my life,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n She\u2019d developed an interest in producing while at New York University, where she studied music during a break from training. Encouraged by her mom and brother, she would go to DJ performances in New York and ask them questions after shows.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201c\u2018If you want to get something, you have to be proactive\u2019 \u2014 that\u2019s always been instilled in me, and that was honestly the start of my journey of discovering myself as a writer, whether it be producing or not,\u201d Ejae said.\n <\/p>\n \n She spent hours each day teaching herself to use music software and how to make beats. She was intrigued by production, in part because she didn\u2019t see many women in that side of the industry.\n <\/p>\n \n While figuring out her next move after SM, she did a studio session with a Korean producer. She thought they were going to make beats. Instead, he wanted her to write a song.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe last song I\u2019d written\u2026like actually wrote the melody and lyrics \u2014 was in college for a project, and it was a Christmas song and it was terrible,\u201d she recounted. \u201cSo I was like, \u2018What?\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n But she gave it a go, and to her surprise, she fell in love with writing pop songs. The song she wrote that day was picked up and released as \u201cHello\u201d by K-pop singer Hani.\n <\/p>\n \n Although Ejae never debuted as an idol, the training helped her understand the structures and melodies that would work for songs. Andrew Choi, who would become her mentor, heard \u201cHello\u201d and brought her onto his team and to SM songwriting camps<\/a>. (Choi is the singing voice for Jinu in \u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d)\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think he saw potential in me, which I didn\u2019t see,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes it just takes other people to see something in you for you to believe in yourself, too.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Since then, she has co-produced or co-written for a string of big-name K-pop acts, including Twice, Suzy and Aespa. Perhaps her most recognizable hit is \u201cPsycho,\u201d by Red Velvet.\n <\/p>\n \n For \u201cKPop Demon Hunters,\u201d she\u2019s credited on four tracks<\/a>, including \u201cGolden.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Maggie Kang, the movie\u2019s creator and co-director, said she contacted the songwriter at the suggestion of her husband. Ejae was initially brought on as a songwriter in 2019 and offered the lead singing role around 2022.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe cast Ejae first. We had the demos and knew that we wanted Ejae to do the vocals,\u201d Kang told<\/a> Forbes last July. In a social media post, she said the demos helped the film get the green light.\n <\/p>\n \n Ejae, for her part, was more hesitant. She had never been cast in a movie before, and, at the time, no one knew \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d would go on to become a global phenomenon. She enjoys being behind the scenes, where there\u2019s less pressure, she said<\/a> in an interview with The New York Times.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhat made me say yes is the efficiency,\u201d she said. \u201cI wrote the song; I know the nuances and how to sell it. I was confident about that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Now audiences are belting out her lyrics, and the music has given the movie a life beyond the screen. \u201cGolden\u201d held the No. 1 spot on Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 for weeks last year, heard everywhere from grocery stores to dentist offices. Other \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d songs similarly dominated the charts worldwide, with hundreds of millions of Spotify streams.\n <\/p>\n \n It\u2019s a full-circle moment for Ejae. Twenty years after she hoped to be a K-pop star and 10 years after her dream was crushed, her voice and lyrics are reaching listeners across the world.\n <\/p>\n![\"Ejae](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/shutterstock-editorial-15681330ca.jpg\")
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