JENNIE’s “like JENNIE” Ranks First in K-Brand Index; EJAE’s Grammy Win Expands K-POP’s Global Influence

K-POP music’s global influence continues to grow significantly. BLACKPINK’s Jennie led all entries in the 2025 K-POP Music Track category of the K-Brand Index with her song “like JENNIE,” while Korean-American singer EJAE achieved recognition by winning a Grammy Award for the soundtrack track “Golden” from the film “KPop Demon Hunters.” The evaluation for the 2025 K-Brand Index K-POP Music Track category, released by the Asian Brand Research Institute, analyzed 51,118,910 pieces of online big data collected over January 2026, focusing on the top 30 songs from the 2025 Melon Chart TOP100. Jennie’s “like JENNIE” secured first place due to its overwhelming popularity, followed by DAY6’s “한 페이지가 될 수 있게” in second place and Rosé & Bruno Mars’s “APT.”” in third place. Notably, IVE became the only group to have two of their tracks—“ATTITUDE” and “REBEL HEART”—enter the TOP10 simultaneously, demonstrating their brand credibility as a group trusted by fans for both title tracks and B-sides. Cases showcasing various pathways within the K-POP industry are also attracting attention. EJAE followed the typical path of a K-POP idol trainee. She joined a leading South Korean entertainment company at the age of 11 and underwent rigorous training for over 10 years but never received a debut opportunity. Reflecting on that time, she said, “I worked hard, but it seems I wasn’t able to showcase my own style,” and she fell into deep despair for some time after leaving. However, instead of leaving the music industry, EJAE explored a new path. She reinvented herself as a songwriter, a decision that led her back to New York and eventually paved the way for “KPop Demon Hunters.” Among the film’s soundtracks, “Golden” is a key track from the movie, which holds Netflix’s highest-ever viewership record, and it won the award for “Best Original Song” at the Golden Globe Awards last January. She also provided the voice acting for Rumi, the purple-haired protagonist of the film. “Golden”’s Grammy win holds great significance in K-POP history as it marks the first time a K-POP song has received such an award, being recognized in the category for the best song for visual media. Claire Marie Lim, a K-POP expert at Berklee College of Music, commented on EJAE’s success by saying, “It is very rare for a former trainee to achieve such great success.” Lim explained that she was also a trainee around the same time as EJAE and that the culture in the K-POP industry at that time typically required trainees to focus solely on stage performances without participating in the creative process. The songwriting path EJAE pursued was an extremely uncommon choice at that time. Her success indicates that the K-POP industry can accommodate diverse roles beyond being an idol performer, such as working as a creator. Professor Lim from Berklee emphasized how innovative EJAE’s path was by saying, “Just over 10 years ago, the mainstream attitude was that ‘you should be able to sing, dance, rap, and model, but not participate in the creative process.’”