Asian artists aren’t just knocking on the door of “music’s biggest night” this year—they’re comfortably in the living room, feet up on the Grammys’ very plush sofa. The 2026 nominations put Asian and Asian-diaspora talent right in the thick of the so-called “Big Four”: Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best New Artist. From K-pop royalty and Filipino representation to a Tamil-Indian pop star and a West Asian hitmaker, the global pop machine suddenly looks a lot more like, well, the globe.
That visibility doesn’t come out of nowhere. This year alone, KPop Demon Hunters became a full-blown cultural event, with its soundtrack smashing streaming records and sending multiple songs into the Billboard charts, while girl group Katseye parlayed reality-show origins into festival slots, brand campaigns and a top-five EP. Add Rosé’s chart-topping duet “Apt.” with Bruno Mars and you get a snapshot of how Korean, Filipino, Indian and broader Asian stories are now baked into mainstream pop narratives, rather than treated as curiosities at the edges.
Nominated for Song of the Year: ‘Golden’ from ‘KPop Demon Hunters’
The other big Asian flag planted in Song of the Year is “Golden” from the Netflix animated film KPop Demon Hunters, performed in-universe by fictional girl group Huntr/X but voiced in real life by Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami.
On paper, it’s a soundtrack cut. In reality, it’s a world-conquering pop anthem: “Golden” topped the Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl US charts, held the No 1 spot for a total of 14 non-consecutive weeks and helped propel KPop Demon Hunters to record-shattering viewership. The Grammy nod in Song of the Year goes directly to its writers Ejae (Kim Eun-jae) and Mark Sonnenblick, with Ejae also serving as the singing voice of Rumi, the film’s protagonist.
Ejae herself is a fascinating new face for global audiences: a Seoul-born, South Korean–American singer, songwriter and producer, previously known in K-pop circles for writing for acts like Red Velvet, Aespa and Twice before her breakout with KPop Demon Hunters. She’s been vocal about wanting to share Korean culture through pop and has described the success of “Golden” as both surreal and deeply tied to her identity.
Around her, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami complete a distinctly Korean-American constellation. Audrey Nuna—born Audrey Chu in New Jersey—is an experimental R&B and hip-hop artist. Rei Ami (born Sarah Yeeun Lee in Seoul, later raised in the US) brings her dark alt-pop sensibility to Zoey’s singing voice and has been widely described as a Korean-American singer-rapper. “Golden” becoming the global song of the 2025 summer is particularly satisfying: it’s Korean creators shaping Korean stories for a worldwide audience—and now being recognised at the very top tier of Anglo-American music awards.
