Meet Ejae, the co-writer and singer of ‘Golden' from Netflix hit K-pop Demon Hunters
top of the Billboard Hot 100 after placing no 2 on the chart last week. Netflix is entering the song into the 2026 Academy Awards in hopes it can also bag them an Oscar.
Ejae at the premiere of Netflix's K-pop Demon Hunters in June. Photo: @ejae_k/Instagram
KPop Demon Hunters tells the story of a popular K-pop girl group called Huntr/x, who secretly serve as demon hunters protecting the world from a demon king and his demon boy band, Saja Boys. Ejae provides the singing voice for the character Rumi in the movie.
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Ejae, who co-wrote 'Golden' with Mark Sonnenblick, is also behind several other songs from the film's soundtrack, including 'Your Idol', 'How It's Done', and 'The Hunter's Mantra'. Its original soundtrack album has marked the highest debut for a soundtrack in 2025, per Rolling Stone, and Ejae has gained nearly 100,000 Instagram followers in a month.
Here's everything you need to know about the Korean star who became world famous overnight.
She's the granddaughter of Korean actor Shin Young-kyun
Ejae with her Pomeranian, Honey. Photo: @ejae_k/Instagram
Ejae's grandfather is the Korean actor Shin Young-kyun, according to the International Business Times. Shin has starred in over 300 movies and is also known for his generous donations to the film industry. In 2011, when Ejae was only 19 years old, she appeared on a Korean Broadcasting System show with her grandfather, and sang
Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You', made famous by
Whitney Houston in the 1990s.
She was a trainee at SM Entertainment
Ejae in Brooklyn in 2019: she studied at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Photo: @ejae_k/Instagram
Ejae was a trainee at SM Entertainment for around 10 years, but despite extensive training and attempts to debut with both a group and as a solo star, she was ultimately deemed too old to debut as a traditional K-pop idol. When users on TikTok learned of her story, they accused the industry of being shallow, with one writing: 'They don't recognise talent, they just want beautiful faces. She is a great talent!'
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