EJAE, Who Overcame 10 Years of Failure as an SM Trainee, Rises as a Grammy-Contender Through Composition of “Golden”

“Golden,” the theme song for Netflix’s animated series *KPop Demon Hunters*, has dominated global charts, drawing attention to the musician EJAE, who composed and wrote the lyrics for this track. His story begins with his 10-year tenure as an SM Entertainment trainee without achieving debut, highlighting his remarkable skill and sincerity in overcoming failure. Although EJAE is the great-granddaughter of veteran actor Shin Young-kyun, she is better known for her struggles during her training days rather than her prominent family background. “Golden” reached second place on the Billboard Hot 100, setting a record that even BTS and BLACKPINK have not attained. The most dramatic aspect of this song is that her voice was originally intended as sample vocals but became the lead voice after the director fell in love with it. In an interview, EJAE said, “I feel immense honor about this success. It’s like I’m about to surf for the first time when a huge wave approaches. I’m doing my best to ride that wave.” She also stated, “Success still doesn’t feel real to me,” but expressed a firm goal of winning a Grammy. The composition team for *KPop Demon Hunters* included musical composers such as Mark Sonnenblick. Sonnenblick, who has a background in musical composition, explained that he learned the entirely new musical language of K-POP while working on this project. He recalled, “I would sing all the demos when writing songs, got used to singing with my own voice, and when the director asked if I wanted to sing, I replied, ‘Why not?’” The music production team said they had an intuition that “Golden” would be a huge hit, but they had no idea just how massive its impact would be. Regarding why the song was successful, EJAE explained, “We live in a time when hope is needed, and I think people desire that. This song is truly hopeful, boosts people’s spirits, and is an extremely powerful track.” EJAE, who gained nearly 100,000 Instagram followers in just one month, said, “Unlike when I was working behind the scenes, I’m gradually getting used to being in the spotlight now.” Describing her fans’ support as “extremely touching,” she expressed gratitude to the director and her collaboration team, showing a mindset of sharing this success as a “result created together.”