The KPop Demon Hunters song “Golden” cleaned up during awards season, becoming the first K-pop song to win both a Grammy and an Academy Award. EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami, the singing voices behind Huntrix, slayed awards season. They made their debut performance on SNL last fall and went on to perform it at the Oscars, BAFTAs, and BRIT Awards. Each performance was full of energy and had audience members singing along.

In a recent interview with the Times, EJAE, who co-wrote “Golden,” reflected on the movie’s success and the long road to getting it released. When her interviewer mentioned she was in the audience for their BAFTA performance and called it “magical,” EJAE admitted that performance still bothers her because her voice cracked during the song’s climax. According to EJAE, she got thrown off her game after seeing an unsmiling Leonardo DiCaprio in the front row. From Page Six:

“KPop Demon Hunters” star Ejae revealed that Leonardo DiCaprio threw off her 2026 BAFTA Awards performance.

“The BAFTAs haunt me,” the singer told the Times in an interview published Thursday. “I made mistakes. I cracked a little bit on the high notes. Leonardo DiCaprio was [in the audience] right in front of me, and he was not smiling.”

Ejae recalled looking directly at the legendary actor right as she sang one of the highest notes in her Oscar-winning song, “Golden.”

“That’s what put me off,” she recalled. “He made me so nervous. It was already so nerve-racking to be in front of all these celebrities, and then I look up and lock eyes with Leonardo DiCaprio? Come on.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Ejae recounted crossing paths with one of the music industry’s biggest power couples, Beyoncé and Jay-Z.

“I was at their afterparty and Jay-Z came up to me and said, ‘Hi, my name’s Shawn,’” she shared.

“I was beyond starstruck. Beyoncé is my idol and she said, ‘You have an incredible voice.’ I asked her, ‘Do you know ‘Golden?’ She was like, ‘Yeah, my girls sing it.’”

Ejae wrote “Golden” alongside Mark Sonnenblick as well as several other songs that appear in “KPop Demon Hunters.”

She also starred as the singing voice for Rumi, a member of fictional K-pop group HUNTR/X that lead secret double lives as martial arts-trained demon hunters in the film.

Despite Ejae’s nerve-wracking performance of “Golden” at the BAFTAs, the song swept the 2026 awards season.

The hit won the Oscar for Best Original Song, and brought the trio, which also includes Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami, to the Brit Awards, Golden Globes, Grammys and more.

[From Page Six]

I watched the video of their BAFTA performance, Yes, her voice cracks, but I didn’t notice it until she pointed it out. That’s the beauty of a banger like “Golden.” We’re all too busy singing along to notice when the artist messes up. I hope EJAE isn’t beating herself up over it. Mistakes happen during live performances, and they performed that song so many times that fans know that she can sing.

I did my fair share of musical theatre in my younger days, and I completely understand being thrown off by seeing someone’s reaction. I wonder if seeing Leo threw EJAE off because he’d already made headlines for talking about KPop Demon Hunters with Teyana Taylor during a Golden Globes commercial break. If that was on my mind, it would throw me off, too. To be fair to Leo, I don’t think he was actively reacting to their performance. He was probably exhausted from the time change and just plain over awards season at that point. This begs the question: Does sitting in the front row of an awards show come with a responsibility to look like you’re into it?

photos credit Justin Ng/Avalon and Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon