The FIFA World Cup Anthem Was Performed in Korean. The Singer Was From an Animated Film.
At Estadio Azteca in Mexico City on Thursday, EJAE stood on the field alongside Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and performed "DNA," the official 2026 FIFA World Cup anthem, live for the first time. She sang her portion in Korean - lyrics she wrote herself, including a line about getting back up after falling. The song also features David Guetta and Megan Thee Stallion on the recording, but neither was in attendance. Before a global television audience, the live rendition was Bocelli and EJAE.
Most people watching did not know who she was. That's the story.
EJAE - born Kim Eun-jae in Seoul - is not a K-pop artist in any conventional sense. She is the Korean-American singer-songwriter who co-wrote and performed "Golden," the centerpiece track from Netflix's animated film KPop Demon Hunters. "Golden" topped the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks in 2025. It won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year at the 68th Grammy Awards in February - the first K-pop song to win in that category. Three weeks later, KPop Demon Hunters won Best Animated Film at the Academy Awards, and EJAE performed "Golden" on the Oscars stage alongside co-performers Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami. At the Golden Globes in January, she accepted the Best Original Song award for the same track.
The FIFA appearance marks her first performance outside the KPop Demon Hunters context since the awards cycle concluded. FIFA released "DNA" on June 11, one day before the tournament opened. It is the first World Cup anthem to include Korean-language lyrics.
Thursday's ceremony is the first of three opening celebrations across the 2026 tournament's three host nations. Lisa performs the US ceremony in Los Angeles today alongside Katy Perry, Anitta, and Rema. BTS is booked for the World Cup Final halftime show at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on July 19, alongside Madonna and Shakira.
The pattern across all three slots - Ejae at the Mexico ceremony, Lisa in Los Angeles, BTS at the Final - was not coincidental. FIFA has explicitly framed K-pop as a strategic pillar of the tournament's cultural programming, consistent with its broader effort to reach younger, globally distributed audiences. What's different about Ejae's slot is its origin point: she arrived at this stage not through K-pop industry infrastructure but through a streaming property that generated its own lane. KPop Demon Hunters is not managed by HYBE, SM, YG, or JYP. Its global footprint was built by Netflix, and the awards recognition followed. The World Cup stage is the next stop on that track.
