EJAE Reacts to Her 'KPop Demon Hunters' Song "Golden" Hitting No. 1 on Hot 100 & More

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EJAE, who trained to be a K-pop idol before transitioning to songwriting, is finally getting her much-deserved moment in the spotlight thanks to the success of the Netflix animated film 'KPop Demon Hunters' and its soundtrack. The singer-songwriter chats with The Hollywood Reporter about her song "Golden" hitting No. 1 on Hot 100, the craziest part of this whole journey and more.

Transcript

00:00Hi, Hollywood Reporter. I'm EJ.

00:06Hitting number one is absolutely crazy. I cried all day, literally. And the first thing I thought

00:15about was me as a kid. And, you know, I'm just so happy I made little 11-year-old EJ's dream come true.

00:30That's like the part that is so validating, I think. Like, oh, that's the part where I'm like, wow.

00:40To have something, because writing songs is very personal. It can feel like you're showing people

00:45your diary or even melodically or anything. So it feels really, really gratifying to have people

00:52really connect with something I wrote and, you know, co-wrote, sorry. And yeah, that song,

00:57the melody came out so fast. So it's so cool. Like, seeing people sing it and hearing my voice

01:04in the radio is so odd.

01:13Everything's been crazy. It's literally just happening so fast. I think the craziest is truly

01:21when I'm on TikTok and I see a person I don't know in their house and then singing Golden.

01:29And the kid's just loving it. That's just crazy. It's so interesting.

01:40Thing is, like, so I was on the project for a long time. And I remember when the directors told us

01:46that they found Mira or Zoey and Rumi, like, they were so excited. So I was really curious.

01:52I did know generally kind of talking to the directors, like what their voices would be like.

01:59So it was really cool to see it in the movie and exactly be what I imagined.

02:06So that was very exciting. And they did an incredible job. Seriously, like, so fun.

02:10That I'm honestly just so humbled and grateful and honored to have people actually love the song

02:26that I worked hard on. Lots of sleepless nights and all-nighters. And I'm just really, really grateful.

02:34Oh, so I think definitely the fact that I'm Korean American. Being bilingual was truly helpful

02:48because I did write all the Korean lyrics in the movie, except for Sook. But, um, uh, and so that was

02:55really helpful. And, you know, when I'm writing the mantra and, you know, knowing the old school Korean

03:00kind of speak and, you know, being able to weave in Korean and English lyrics seamlessly and also

03:07growing up, I grew up half in the States, half in Korea. So having that knowledge is really was super

03:14key, um, in finding a sound that can work both in both ways and also lyrically. And, um, I think

03:23that was important. And also me also training as a K-pop idol for over a decade was very, very helpful.

03:31Um, and just being a K-pop writer myself, I definitely incorporated that knowledge in, um, and also

03:37interestingly, like K-pop is really, really maximalist. So it translated like very naturally into cinematic

03:43songs, sound. So, um, yeah, I think those were the two very helpful things.

03:54Cool!

03:56Okay?

04:02Okay, thank you.

04:09Yeah.

04:12Um, uh, well, that's right.

04:16But, um, that's okay.

04:19So, I think that's right.

04:20And I'm sorry.

EJAE Reacts to Her 'KPop Demon Hunters' Song "Golden" Hitting No. 1 on Hot 100 & More | THR Video

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