For Ejae, the Korean-American singer/songwriter who is the guest on this episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast, which was recorded in front of film students at Chapman University, 2026 — like 2025 before it — is shaping up to be truly, well, golden.
In 2025, “Golden,” the banger tune that she co-wrote for the Netflix animated film KPop Demon Hunters — for which she also provided the singing voice for the character Rumi, one third of the girl group at its center, Huntrix — became a worldwide phenomenon, shooting to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and holding that spot for eight weeks. It marked the first time that a K-pop — or Korean popular music — act not associated with BTS had ever topped the Hot 100, and it made Huntrix the first girl group to top it since Destiny’s Child with “Bootylicious” back in 2001. The film, meanwhile, became the most watched original title in Netflix’s history,…