KPop Demon Hunters, Netflix’s smash hit animated musical film, just had a big night on television. The singers behind the movie’s central KPop group, HUNTR/X, made their late night talk show debut on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon on October 7 — and needless to say, they brought down the house with a special performance of “Golden.”
The singing voices behind Rumi, Mira, and Zoey — EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami, respectively — took to the stage to perform the HUNTR/X single that changed everything for the group in the narrative. The women performed the track in all-black outfits in front of a screen playing moments from the unveiling and performance of the song within the film.
No surprises here, but the performance was so good, it almost definitely sealed the Honmoon.
But, if you can believe it, that wasn’t even the best part of the night for the trio. In fact, during their sit-down interview with Fallon, the host revealed to them that the single they would perform on the show had officially gone platinum — a major accomplishment. Fallon presented the band with a platinum record plaque to commemorate the moment, and tears were shed.
Fallon also made it a point to highlight all of the records the film, the band, and “Golden” specifically have broken so far — and there are a ton of insane ones. EJAE also opened up about writing the song, which she did on her way to the dentist after receiving the instrumental track from producers. The melody came to her almost instantly, and then later she had a Zoom session to hash out the lyrics specifically.
EJAE also told a story about seeing a ghost in the studio while recording “Golden.” She claims the ghost, who donned a flannel shirt and blue jeans when she saw him for a split second, got her volume knob back in working order when it stopped functioning during the session. When she brought it up to studio staff, they were unphased and knew exactly what she was talking about. Spooky.
But perhaps the most interesting part of the story was when EJAE mentioned that her mother reminded her of a Korean superstition after the encounter: if you see any paranormal activity while recording a song, it’s going to be a hit.
EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami are certainly on a roll lately with an incredible late rollout strategy that definitely intends to keep the immensely popular film in the forefront of minds in the months since it was released. Just a few days prior to their Fallon appearance, they sang together on Saturday Night Live as a surprise during a sketch.
That said, it’s no surprise to see Netflix take this route with the singing voices of such a hit musical film. After all, “Golden” held the top spot on the Billboard Top 100 for a whopping eight weeks when the movie was released. Folks love this thing — and they certainly aren’t going to stop after such a killer (not to mention totally endearing) late night appearance.
Photo by: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
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