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The music of South Korea has never been more popular, with five of 2025’s most popular albums globally being made by K-pop groups, however, the genre’s biggest group of the year, Huntr/x, seems to have appeared from nowhere.
The band are animated characters in the Netflix movie KPop Demon Hunters, whose singing voices are represented by 26-year-old Audrey Nuna, Ejae, 34, and Rei Ami, 30, with their song Golden being the second most popular song in the world in 2025, behind fellow K-pop star Rose with her song APT with US singer Bruno Mars.
Kpop Demon Hunters tells the story of Huntr/x as they face off against rival boyband Saja Boys, who are secretly made up of demons.
Ejae, who is the singing voice of Rumi in the film, was originally brought into Kpop Demon Hunters as one of its songwriters before being offered the part after directors became used to hearing her voice on demos.
She initially trained to become a K-pop act in the early 2000s with SM Entertainment, one of K-pop’s biggest entertainment companies, before moving into songwriting and producing, working with the likes of Red Velvet, Aespa, Twice, and Le Sserafim.
Ejae says of the film: “This whole thing has changed my life 180 — and that feels like an understatement.
“I moved here to the States and my dream was to have a (Billboard) Hot 100 hit song. To have it be a K-pop song with Korean lyrics in it, it means so much.”
Born and raised in New Jersey, Audrey Nuna, who sings as Mira in the film, was already a successful singer in her own right, having released three albums, and singles including Damn Right and Comic Sans, the latter of which features US rapper and singer Jack Harlow.
Rei Ami who is the singing and rapping voice of Zoey, rose to prominence with her guest performance on Sub Urban’s 2020 song Freak, which went viral on TikTok, she released her debut mixtape Foil in 2021 and the EP Shhh in 2023, and has released singles since 2019.
Following the success of the film and its music, the trio have seen their characters made into toys by the likes of Lego and Mattel, while Hasbro has released a card game and an adaption of the classic boardgame Monopoly, there has also been a range of clothing featuring the band.
K-pop, the style shown in the film, began in the 1990s and is a heavily manufactured form of pop music, which draws from influences such as dance, hip hop and rock, with groups often performing complex choreography while performing.
Acts are trained through strenuous programmes, reportedly costing millions per artist, which teach future stars skills such as foreign languages as well as singing and dancing ahead of their stage debut
Other South Korean stars such as Blackpink member Rose, and boybands Enhypen, Seventeen and Stray Kids all had some of the best-selling LPs last year, but the soundtrack to Kpop Demon Hunters, which features Huntr/x, eclipsed them all.
The record was the third best-selling album worldwide according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
K-pop’s hype looks as if it will be boosted even further in 2026, with BTS, the genre’s best-known group, set to return with a new album and a world tour, having completed their 18 months of mandatory military service.
Huntr/x were nominated for best pop duo/group performance at this year’s Grammy Awards, and received nods for international group and international song at this year’s Brit Awards, where a pre-recorded performance of Golden was broadcast.
They were also the musical act at the Bafta film awards, where they performed, and in addition, they won best song at the Critics’ Choice Awards and Golden Globes, while the film won best animated film at the two awards ceremonies.
Now the fictional group will compete for best original song for Golden, while Kpop Demon Hunters will compete for best animated feature at this year’s Oscars.
They will face competition for best song from Kesha’s Dear Me from the documentary Diane Warren: Relentless, Miles Caton’s I Lied To You from the horror film Sinners, Sweet Dreams Of Joy from the documentary Viva Verdi!, and the title song from US period drama Train Dreams.
In the best animated feature category, the film faces competition from Zootopia 2, Little Amelie Or The Character Of Rain, Elio, and Arco.
Kpop Demon Hunters’ co-director Maggie Kang says she had to keep her “happy scream” down to a low volume when she found out about her film’s nominations in order to avoid waking her family, but follow director Chris Appelhans says he “did not scream quietly”.
He says: “My five-year-old son came in to figure out what was going on, and I tried to explain to him what the Oscars were, but he didn’t really care. He said, ‘do you get a trophy?’, and I said, ‘I don’t know’.”
Kang adds: “To see how proud Koreans are of this film as this beacon of representation for them, it just makes me so happy that there’s validation from the motherland.”
Released in June last year, Kpop Demon Hunters has become Netflix’s most-watched film of all time, according to the streamer, while Golden has spent 10 weeks at the top of the UK singles chart, with the group’s other songs How It’s Done, What It Sounds Like and Takedown have all charted.
The Oscar winners will be revealed at a ceremony in Hollywood on March 15, hosted by US chat show host Conan O’Brien, which will air on ITV, ITVX, STV and STV Player.
Kpop Demon Hunters can be viewed on Netflix.