'Golden' Just Made K-Pop Oscar History. The Academy Played It Off the Stage Anyway.
The KPop Demon Hunters songwriting team was cut off mid-speech at the 98th Academy Awards - twice. Fans are demanding an apology.
Sunday night at the Dolby Theatre should have been an uncomplicated triumph. KPop Demon Hunters - Netflix's animated blockbuster about a K-pop girl group who moonlights fighting demons - walked away from the 98th Academy Awards with two Oscars: Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song for "Golden." The latter became the first K-pop song ever to win an Academy Award, completing a sweep that also included a Grammy and a Golden Globe. The crowd gave a standing ovation. Then the orchestra started playing, and the moment curdled.
It happened twice.
The first instance came during the Best Animated Feature acceptance. Directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans took the stage. Kang, in tears, told the audience: "For those of you who look like me, I'm so sorry that it took so long to see us in a movie like this. But it is here. That means the next generation doesn't have to go longing." When producer Michelle Wong then stepped to the microphone, the play-off music cut in almost immediately, ending her remarks before they began.
The second - and sharper - incident came when "Golden" won Best Original Song. Singer-songwriter EJAE (Kim Eun-jae), who voices demon hunter Rumi in the film, opened the group's speech with visible emotion. "Growing up, people made fun of me for liking K-pop," she said. "But now everyone's singing our song and all the Korean lyrics. I'm so proud." She continued: "This award is not about success. It's about resilience." Then she stepped back to let her co-writers speak.
Co-writer Yu-Han Lee - a member of Korean production collective IDO alongside Joong Gyu Kwak and Hee Dong Nam - had barely reached the microphone before the orchestra struck up. His mic was drowned out. The broadcast cut to commercial. Standing beside him, Mark Sonnenblick was seen jumping and gesturing, visibly trying to signal that someone was still speaking. The audience inside the theater audibly booed. In the end, Sonnenblick, Kwak, Lee, Nam, 24 (Jeong Hun-seol), and Teddy Park were all denied their moment at the podium on live television.
The seven credited writers on "Golden" had already broken an Oscar record just by winning - it's the first song with more than four credited writers ever to take home Best Original Song. Under Academy rules, no more than four statuettes can be awarded in the category, meaning the team agreed beforehand to share a single trophy. They got less than they bargained for: one speech, shared among seven people, cut short before most of them could say a word.
Backstage, the team finished what they couldn't say onstage. Lee called the win "an incredible honor" and thanked his family and fellow members of the group 24. Sonnenblick reflected on the film's themes: "Part of the movie is about looking at someone you've been taught to hate and fear, and starting to trust, maybe love them. It's not 'I'm going up, up, up.' It's 'We're going up, up, up.'" EJAE, speaking separately, expressed regret that she hadn't been able to publicly acknowledge fellow Huntrix vocalists Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami - who had performed "Golden" live earlier in the broadcast - because, she said, "they just cut us off."
The backlash online was immediate. Viewers on X pointed out that other categories - including Best Live Action Short - were allowed significantly more time, while comedy bits and presenter remarks ran long during the same broadcast. "Absolutely disrespectful," wrote one user. "They were given less time than every other winner and the Oscars owes them an apology." Another: "They just made history - give them five extra seconds." CNN also weighed in, criticizing the Academy for its treatment of the historic K-pop win.
Some framed it as a question of race. "Cutting off people of color giving speeches," one post read. Others pushed back, noting the Oscars have long played off winners across categories regardless of background - though few could recall a night where the same team was cut off twice.
Whatever the Academy's intent, the optics were hard to defend. The first Korean-language K-pop song in Oscar history got one full speech - from one of seven credited writers - and the rest were ushered offstage to finish their remarks in a press room. The statuette was gold. The moment was not.
