A song about a fictional girl group just won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. “Golden,” from Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters, took the prize at the 98th Oscars on Sunday (March 15), the first time a K-pop song has won the category, and it did it minutes after EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami performed it live, with the audience waving glowing light sticks, per Deadline.
EJAE, who co-wrote the song and voices Rumi in the film, spoke through tears. Her thank-you was personal, and aimed at anyone who was ever teased for their taste:
Growing up, people made fun of me for liking K-pop, but now everyone’s singing our song and all the Korean lyrics.
EJAE, Billboard
Then the music cut in. When co-writer Yu-Han Lee tried to add his thanks, the music drowned him out and the show went to a break, and, per The Hollywood Reporter, there were boos in the theater. Lee and co-writer Mark Sonnenblick gave their speeches backstage instead. Sonnenblick used his to describe what the film is about:
It’s a movie where part of the movie is about looking at someone that you’ve been taught to hate and to fear and starting to trust, maybe even love them.
Mark Sonnenblick, The Hollywood Reporter
The Academy math made the cut-off sting more. “Golden” has seven credited writers (EJAE, Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seo and Teddy Park), and the category never awards more than four statuettes. Writers on songs with five or more collaborators sign a form agreeing to share one group statuette, Billboard explains. That makes “Golden” the first winner with more than four writers, and the first where no one gets an individual trophy.
It capped an awards sweep that included a Grammy (the first for a K-pop song), a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice Award. The film also won Best Animated Feature the same night, with directors Maggie Kang and Michelle L.M. Wong becoming the first people of South Korean descent to win in the category, per Deadline. It was a big night for Netflix overall.
And the score went to ‘Sinners’
The other music story of the night was Ludwig Göransson, who won Best Original Score for Sinners, his third Oscar for a score after Black Panther and Oppenheimer. Billboard notes he is the first composer to win twice with the same director since Howard Shore and Peter Jackson on The Lord of the Rings, and that he was the only composer nominated for both score and song this year, sharing a song nomination with Raphael Saadiq for “I Lied to You.”
My dad bought his first blues album in Sweden 1964. It was a John Lee Hooker album.
Ludwig Göransson, Billboard
“I Lied to You” lost to “Golden,” but it had the more theatrical performance. Miles Caton and Saadiq led a crew that included Shaboozey, Brittany Howard, Buddy Guy, Bobby Rush and Misty Copeland in a recreation of the film’s juke-joint scene, with dancers moving through ballet, twerking and breakdancing, Rolling Stone reported.
What’s next: the KPop Demon Hunters sequel will arrive in theaters first, Netflix has since said, so the next chance to hear “Golden” on a big screen is already planned.
- Best Original Song
- “Golden” (*KPop Demon Hunters*), beating Diane Warren, Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner, Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson, and Nicholas Pike
- Best Original Score
- Ludwig Göransson, *Sinners*
- Ceremony
- 98th Academy Awards, March 15, 2026
Sources
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
