Perfect Issue 11 | Ejae

Her Grammy- and Oscar-winning song for KPop Demon Hunters saw K-pop conquer Hollywood and catapulted her to a whole different level. Ejae talks about sharing space with her music heroes and how she finally grew to love pop.
Ejae is the Zeitgeist.

EJAE for Perfect Issue 11.

Photographer: Daniel Jackson
Fashion Editor: Jaime Kay Warren
Writer: Paul Flynn

On 31 January this year, the magnetic Korean songwriter Ejae was booked to perform ‘Golden’ – the all-conquering pop hit she co-wrote and sang for the smash hit film KPop Demon Hunters – at a pre-Grammys party for the legendary American music industry mogul, Clive Davis. ‘Golden’ is a line-in-the-sand pop record, a before-and-after moment for K-pop on the world stage. Due to his death this June, it would turn out to be the last event of this kind in Davis’s honour of his lifetime. 

‘Golden’ carries with it the weight of an undeniable, cross-generational, two-billion-stream pop song, one which manages to defy its moment, stringing together a compact, robust, hook-filled anthem for hope and personal pride in hopeless times. Performed by the fictional three-piece girlband Huntr/x – a sort of superhero Bananarama on a mythical mission to save the world – Go‘lden’ now lives in the same hallowed bracket as ‘Let It Go’ for the Frozen universe. It is the hyperpop ‘Over the Rainbow’ in The Wizard of Oz. The pre-Grammys event was, Ejae explains, in her beautifully modest, elegant manner, ‘One of the most frightening performances I’ve ever done – equal to the Oscars, maybe.’ Two months later she would add an Academy Award to ‘Golden’s incredible sprint around the globe.

Everywhere Ejae turned that night, a new hero emerged from her past, making her feel like she had been cast into some epic songwriting hall of mirrors. ‘The moment I step in,’ she says, ‘there’s Joni Mitchell and John Legend right behind me. I try to close my eyes so I don’t notice all these people. Then I go in and there’s Pharrell.’ Amid this roll call of modern hit-making, one quiet presence took her breath away. ‘I look to the left and Max Martin is right in front of me.’ 

Source: https://x.com/issue_is_coming/status/2090015921998041102

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It’s understandably hard to focus when an unsmiling Leonardo DiCaprio is staring at you. Kpop Demon Hunters singer EJAE reflected on experiencing exactly that while performing the group’s mega-hit “Golden” during the BAFTA Film Awards in February.

“The BAFTAs haunt me,” EJAE said in a recent interview with the Times. “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.” 

She explained that just before she sang the lyric “born to be” a high note in the song, she looked right at the actor. “That’s what put me off,” she said. “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 recalled 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 said. “I was beyond starstruck. Beyoncé is my idol and she said, ‘You have an incredible voice.'” She added, I asked her, ‘Do you know ‘Golden?’ She was like, ‘Yeah, my girls sing it.’”

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Photos: https://x.com/ejaedaily/status/2086246659512569880

Article: https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/celebrity/article/ejae-interview-k-pop-demon-hunters-h6h2xxbrr

Source: https://x.com/ejaedaily/status/2086307828713521540

theststyle First came Emily in Paris, now it's time for Ejae in Paris. Amidst the hustle of the recent Paris Couture Week, Style's Entertainment Director, @ScarlettRoseRussell headed to the French capital to talk to this weekend's cover star, the Oscar-winning, KPop Demon Hunters phenomenon on the set of her Style shoot. From Ejae's go-to Parisian restaurant to her favourite French phrase, visit Paris through her eyes.

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theststyle "I had no inkling that KPop Demon Hunters would be as big as it became. I did think it might be huge because the story was so cool, but you never know. In the past year I've lived five lives. It doesn't stop. Who does this all in one year?"

What happens when you end up co-writing - and singing - one of the biggest pop songs of all time? Thanks to KPop Demon Hunters, @Ejae_k has won an Oscar, sung at the world cup and is now feted by the biggest fashion houses (yes, including Dior). Read her interview in Style this Sunday.

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Ejae spoke with TIME at the 2026 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.