How “K-Pop Demon Hunters” Songwriter EJAE Turned Rejection Into Her Golden Success
Kpop Demon Hunters is a juggernaut. Since its release on Netflix, not only has it become the streamer’s most-watched film of all time, but the animated feature is the first to have four songs simultaneously on the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. In addition, the song “Golden” is now the longest-running number 1 by a girl group in the 21st century.
Directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Applehans, the story is about K-pop girl group Huntr/x, comprised of Rumi, Mira, and Zoey, who lead double lives as demon hunters. They fight a rival boy band made up of demons while trying to create a final seal to banish them. When they release the new single “Golden,” they hope the incredible earworm they’ve conjured will also create the Golden Honmoon, which would banish all demons forever. It’s not easy being a superstar group of pop singers and demon hunters simultaneously, but Rumi, Mira, and Zoey make it at least look like a lot of fun. And they’re viciously talented, to boot.
Awards season is getting underway, and “Golden” is the current frontrunner for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. It was written by Emmy-nominated composer Mark Sonnenblick, who is known for his work in musical theater and film, and K-pop singer/songwriter and producer EJAE. Hearing EJAE’s song demos early in production, the filmmakers cast her as Rumi’s singing voice.
The Credits caught up with EJAE at the Middleburg Film Festival, where she talked about her journey and her role in creating this record-breaking production.
Starting when you were only 11, you were a K-pop trainee at SM Entertainment for over 10 years. Then, after being dropped as a singer in 2017, you attended their songwriting camp.
Yes. Songwriting was never a career I’d thought of, but around 2015, when I was 22, I was dropped. After that, I fell in love with the underground SoundCloud scene, and the music there was more instrumentally focused, so I made a lot of beats. Then, while I was figuring out my life, I started singing on original soundtracks for Korean dramas, and that’s how I got into the music industry outside of SM. I started meeting songwriters who asked if I made music, brought me into the studio, and showed them my beats. They asked if I could topline, but I didn’t know what that meant, and they explained it was writing a melody over tracks they had. That’s how it started, and I just winged a melody. I wrote about my ex-boyfriend at the time, and that day it got cut by a pretty big artist in Korea. It was a song called “Hello,” which Andrew Choi heard, and then he asked me to start writing with him. He started mentoring me and brought me to my first SM song camp, and that’s where I wrote the song “Psycho,” which was released by Red Velvet. That was the fifth song I’d ever written.
How did that shift your thinking about your career?
Back then, SM had a very specific kind of style, and they tried to change my voice. My vocals are very low and husky, and it was a big insecurity of mine because they weren’t clean and pretty like the voices they wanted. I kept trying to change my voice to suit them, which caused a lot of issues with my vocal cords and led to my voice cracking or my not being able to sing at all. Then I noticed that when I got into songwriting, it fit my personality more. I got very realistic with myself about whether I actually wanted to be a singer. I’d see my friends debut in the K-pop industry, and it seems glamorous from the outside, but it’s really quite grueling. It’s really hard on people mentally. I knew I didn’t have a thick enough skin for that, but songwriting felt like home to me. It felt healing. I was able to write about whatever was troubling me.
How did your career progress from there?
At first, beat-making was a passion of mine. Then, once I got into songwriting, I went with the flow of whatever opportunities came and just kept learning. K-pop allowed me to extend the ways I used my vocals, but also taught me about genres, because K-pop is such a melting pot of different genres. All that helped me grow as a writer. Then Covid happened, and that’s where everything lifted up for me. At that point, I had a production background. My fiancé is an audio engineer at Berkeley, and he taught me how to mix and produce vocals. A lot of songwriters don’t know how to do that. He taught me how to send stems properly, which upped my game and made me more creative sonically in songwriting. It’s not just writing a melody or lyric; it’s how to express that with harmonies, mixing, adding reverb, adding crowd vocals, or using that as a sound, and designing the vocals for the performer. I completely fell in love with vocal production.
Your way into Kpop Demon Hunters was through Daniel Rojas. How did that come about?
We’ve been friends since before Kpop Demon Hunters. We had worked on other projects, like Netflix animation projects, and he and I have a really good working relationship and chemistry. He was brought on first, and he brought me in, telling Maggie Kang he knew a K-pop writer, so then it was just Maggie, Chris Appelhans, Daniel, and me. We were the only musicians on the team. I was so excited because it was the first animated film based in Korea. I’d never seen that before, and I knew I’d love seeing our food, our city, and so many other aspects of Korean life animated for the world. We created a sort of blueprint musically, and that’s how the movie got greenlit. Then more people came on, including Mark Sonnenblick, whom I worked with on “Golden,” and came on a bit later to help with building the story. The songs had to not only be great K-pop songs, but they had to forward the storytelling.
In Kpop Demon Hunters, you’re the singing voice of Rumi. How do you see yourself as similar to the character you play?
Well, first, her hair is lavender, and that’s my favorite color! She’s also a workaholic and perfectionist, and I’m both those things. I see her working so hard to achieve her goal of breaking her patterns and hiding her shame and insecurities, and that’s exactly how I felt in my trainee days. I was always trying to hide what I thought were my flaws and look perfect. That struggle is really toxic to your mental health. The more you try to hide or ignore your imperfections or demons, the more they grow. There was just a point in my life when I had to accept who I was on so many levels and accept my voice. I am also related to Rumi, always trying to solve things on her own and look strong, even though doing that is exhausting.
How did “Golden” get written? What’s the story behind the production of that song?
The directors gave us the guidelines for what the scene was about. In Demon Hunters, they had teams of songwriters and scenes we were in charge of, but they’d have other writers work on it if they didn’t like what we’d done. “Golden” was the last song we worked on, but it’s the “I want” song, and the introduction of all the characters and what their problems and goals are, so it was very important. It was also an anti-victory song. For example, you hear Rumi sing on the bridge about not hiding anymore, at exactly the same time, she’s hiding her true self. She’s so focused on being perfect in the Honmoon, striving for that goal, so desperate, that she’s ruining herself. I really related to that on so many levels. As much as it’s a hopeful song, it’s also bittersweet.
What are you hoping the film will do in terms of inspiring other Asian women who want to create?
I think the film’s and the song’s success are already giving many girls hope, and I love that. Even though this is very unfamiliar territory for me, since I’m so used to being behind the scenes, I think my being the face of this helps other Asian women see what’s possible. There are stereotypes of Asian women being submissive, and it’s really hard for us, so I want to kill that imposter syndrome, because I do know what that feels like. I really want to reach out to more Korean girls and mentor them. That’s a goal I definitely have going forward.
Kpop Demon Hunters is streaming now on Netflix.
For more big titles on Netflix, check these out:
Featured image: L;r: ELMONT, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 07: EJAE of HUNTR/X from ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ attends the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards at UBS Arena on September 07, 2025 in Elmont, New York. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images); KPOP DEMON HUNTERS – When they aren’t selling out stadiums, Kpop superstars Rumi, Mira and Zoey use their secret identities as badass demon hunters to protect their fans from an ever-present supernatural threat. Together, they must face their biggest enemy yet – an irresistible rival boy band of demons in disguise. ©2025 Netflix
