She Got a Gold Filling and Knew Golden Would Be a Smash — Ejae on Writing KPop Demon Hunters’ Breakout Song
Songwriter-producer Kim Eun-jae — who performs as Ejae, the singing voice of Rumi in the film KPop Demon Hunters — says she immediately knew the movie’s breakout single “Golden” would be a hit the moment the melody arrived. She wrote the song with co-writer Mark Sonnenblick and later sent it to producer Ian Eisendrath, and the track has continued to climb after release.
How Ejae knew
Ejae said the melody for “Golden” came to her while she was driving to a dentist appointment, where she ended up getting a gold filling. She described the moment plainly: “When I got the melody, I was like, Ohhhh, this is a good melody,” she said. She then rushed home to record it and bring her co-writer in on the idea.
Writing process
According to the press conference, Ejae and Mark Sonnenblick worked over Zoom. The hook, chorus, verse and pre-chorus reportedly came together quickly, rather than in separate stages. Ejae said, “Oh my God, Mark, I have this melody — I think it’s pretty epic.” Then, she added, “Literally Mark and I on Zoom were like, ‘Did we just write a hit?’ It sounded so good.”
For the film, Ejae wrote several songs: “Golden,” “How It’s Done,” “Your Idol,” and “Hunter’s Mantra.” She performs the singing voice of the movie’s main character, the half-demon K-pop star Rumi.
Early reactions
After Ejae and Sonnenblick finished the song, they sent it to producer Ian Eisendrath. Ejae said she kept a screenshot of his response: “‘This. Is. Massive!’ He was like, ‘This is a smash, Ejae!'”
Co-director Maggie Kang described her own response when Eisendrath asked her to listen immediately: “I know exactly where I was — I was going to the airport, I was in a car,” she said at the press conference. “Ian was like, ‘Maggie, I just need you to listen to it right now.’ So I take my AirPods out, and I’m listening to it, and I heard the few notes in the beginning, and then I just had tears. I really knew exactly — I knew it was it. It’s just so magical from the beginning. And I was like, Oh my gosh, we finally got it.”
Commercial performance
As a concrete measure of the song’s reach, “Golden” spent its seventh week at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 global singles chart. Meanwhile, the film itself is streaming on Netflix and has reached the milestone of being Netflix’s most-watched original movie of all time.
