South Koreans celebrated on Monday (Feb 2) as Golden, from the Netflix animated film KPop Demon Hunters, claimed K-pop’s first Grammy Award, a milestone that critics say highlights the genre’s global appeal and signals broader acceptance in the American mainstream.

The win for best song for visual media capped a highly visible night for K-pop at the Grammys – an institution where the genre has long been undercelebrated despite its massive international following.

Rose of the juggernaut girl group Blackpink joined Grammy favourite Bruno Mars on stage to belt out their megahit Apt, which was a song of the year nominee. The girl group Katseye, launched by a partnership between South Korea’s Hybe and US label Geffen Records, earned two nominations, including best new artist, for their song Gabriela.

The awards captured a moment in which K-pop is surging as a youth-driven global phenomenon and increasingly attracting interest from the US film and music industries.

US legacy studios, struggling to reach younger audiences, have taken note of K-pop’s viral strength on social media and short-form platforms – a momentum that has driven collaborations such as Rose and Bruno Mars and projects like Katseye and KPop Demon Hunters, according to music critic Lim Hee-yun.

Zoey, Rumi and Mira are in a K-pop girl group called Huntrix. (Photo: Netflix)

The Grammy win for Golden, which also contended for song of the year, could help further strengthen K-pop’s American foothold and boost the genre’s prospects at future awards, he said.

There is debate over whether Golden, an English-language pop song from a Sony Pictures Animation film, qualifies as K-pop. Still, the Grammy award sparked joy in South Korea, where the film inspired Demon Hunters-themed ramen and other products and boosted tourism to Seoul’s old fortress walls and other cultural sites featured in the film.

“It feels unreal,” said Kim Na-young, a 50-year-old who said she saw the movie at least five times. “Sony made it, Netflix released it, but the film was definitely about Korea.”

‘OUTSTANDING VOCAL PERFORMANCE’

KPop Demon Hunters, released by Netflix last June, follows the three members of the fictional Korean girl group Huntr/x as they use their music and martial arts skills to keep demons out of the human world.

The film went on to become Netflix’s most popular release of all time, with songs like Golden and Soda Pop climbing global music charts and its characters becoming popular Halloween costume choices in the United States. The singers behind Huntr/x – Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami – gained huge followings.

After winning their award at the Grammys’ Premiere Ceremony, the songwriters of Golden delivered their acceptance speech in both English and Korean, highlighting its bilingual appeal.

Some South Koreans saw the Grammy win as the latest significant moment marking the rise of South Korean pop culture, following the 2020 Oscar triumph of Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite.

“When Parasite won, it felt like South Korean culture had entered the global mainstream. The Grammy win takes that recognition even further,” said Park Jeong-eon, 48, recalling trips abroad in the 2000s when she felt that South Korea was little known.

Seo Ga-yeon, who studies K-pop at a university, said she could emotionally relate with the personal story of Ejae, who struggled as a young K-pop trainee in South Korea before establishing herself as an artist in the United States.

“I think it was above all her outstanding vocal performance – overflowing with emotion, as if she was singing about her own life, almost like a cry – that made Golden a success,” she said.

South Korea’s governing Democratic Party said the Grammy win was a historically significant moment in which K-pop “finally overcame the long-standing Grammy barrier.”

BOOSTED AWARENESS OF K-POP

The Recording Academy had long overlooked major K-pop acts like BTS and some analysts question whether Golden should truly be considered K-pop’s first Grammy win.

“The film, of course, used K-pop as material and helped bring it global attention, but I feel there’s a distance between Golden and K-pop,” said Jinmo Lim, another music critic, who described the Grammy win as recognition of K-pop’s growing international appeal rather than a victory for the genre itself.

Lim Hee-yun said Golden sounds more like American pop – “Katy Perry or early Lady Gaga” – than a typical K-pop idol track, which may have helped it reach a broader audience. While K-pop groups usually have four or more members who rotate vocal parts to engage fans, Golden is carried almost entirely by a single lead vocalist – Ejae.

Group composition, precision in style and choreography, and passionate – almost religious – fan bases are key elements that define K-pop, he said, though the genre has become increasingly difficult to pin down musically.

“For people who knew little about K-pop, or had only heard of BTS or Blackpink, KPop Demon Hunters certainly boosted awareness of the K-pop world and even sparked interest in travelling to South Korea,” Lim Hee-yun said. “K-pop groups are likely to receive far more attention in the future than they would have without the film.”