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New Music Latin is a compilation of the best new Latin songs and albums recommended by Billboard and Billboard Español editors. Check out this week’s picks below.
Pablo Alborán, KM0 (Warner Music Spain)
Pablo Alborán’s personal and heartfelt seventh album, KM0, is a set of 14 songs and four bonus tracks in which he explores a variety of rhythms and styles. Born from the pain and uncertainty of a loved one’s illness, as the artist recounted in a recent interview with Billboard, the album showcases a more mature and determined musician with renewed artistic freedom. Here, Alborán takes on the songwriting of all the songs and, for the first time, produces and arranges most of them, experimenting with rhythms like country/folk (“Vámonos de Aquí,” with Indiara Sfair), salsa music (“La Vida Que Nos Espera”) and merengue (“Si Te Quedas”).
The album opens with “Clickbait,” a pop track that critiques the superficiality and fake news of social media, addressing the obsession with fame and “likes.” And continues with the emotional title track, “KM0,” in which he sings about facing a new start after going through a very difficult period in his life. It also features collaborations with Luan Santana (“Qué Tal Te Va”), Ana Belén (“Inciso”), Vicente Amigo (“Planta 7,” named after the hospital floor where his relative was located), and Japanese artist Lilas Ikuta (“Perfectos imperfectos”). In true Alborán style, it is a sublime and thoroughly enjoyable work, full of heart and musicality. – SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS
Santa Fe Klan, “No Seré Quien Canta” (473 Music)
There’s a serenity to Santa Fe Klan’s new single, which captures the Mexican rapper at his most raw and vulnerable state. “No Seré Quien Canta” is a welcome departure — both sonically and lyrically — from his hard-hitting rap songs that have catapulted him to fame over the past decade. Powered by soft guitar notes, the soul-baring cumbia finds Santa in a state of healing, reflecting on love that once was and the peace that comes from letting go. “I was broken into pieces, my steps were unsteady,” he sings with pathos. “And when you hear a loud voice, you’ll think it’s your lucky day, but I won’t be the one singing, I won’t be the one making you vibrate.” — GRISELDA FLORES
Zhamira, Curita Para El Corazón (Dynamic Records/EMPIRE)
Almost 10 years after gaining momentum on Univision’s reality talent show, La Banda 2, Zhamira unleashes her highly-awaited debut studio album Curita Para El Corazón. If its title is any indication, which translates to “bandaid for the heart,” the 14-track set explores love and heartbreak, offering personal and vulnerable songs that can heal the deepest wounds. The Venezuelan singer-songwriter delivers a full-blown pop album sprinkled with heart-wrenching ballads and some tropical tunes.
For example, the bachata-infused “Mil Preguntas” is about a girl questioning her boyfriend’s intentions. The country-tinged “Otra Vez,” alongside her artist husband Jay Wheeler, is about making broken promises, and “No Me Quiero Ir” is a soft-paced merengue. In Curita Para El Corazón, Zhamira collaborates with Greeicy (“como fué?”), Noreh (“me hubiese gustado”) and KENNY (“desvelo”). The set is also home to a salsa version of the Jay Wheeler-assisted “extrañándote” that earned Zhamira her first Top 10 on the Latin Pop Airplay chart when it peaked at No. 4 in February 2024. — JESSICA ROIZ
Edén Muñoz & Bacilos, “Chimba” (Sony Music México)
Edén Muñoz is fulfilling one of his biggest dreams: releasing a collaboration with Bacilos, a band that strongly influenced him during his teenage years and whose songs are part of his set list at shows. With the release of “Chimba,” a song written and saved for many years by Muñoz, Mexico and Colombia come together once again in music and joy. What begins with soft guitars continues with a very danceable rhythm set by trumpets and timbales. The tuba also plays a part, adding that Sinaloan touch, while the accordion gives it a vallenato flavor. The lyrics couldn’t be more catchy: “And she gave me a little kiss, invited me to her apartment, we had a great time, really awesome, and I was left thinking, how lucky I am,” referring to a serendipitous encounter between two people who want to heal their broken hearts. — TERE AGUILERA
Estevie, La Traición y El Contrabando (Warner Music Latina)
Beneath her signature cowboy hat, Estevie is carrying the emotional depth and firepower of música mexicana’s brightest newcomers — but with a style that’s entirely hers. With her latest EP, La Traición y El Contrabando, the Beaumont-born vaquera doesn’t ease you in at first play. Instead, she spins haunting falsettos over accordion-laced melodies in the ghostly opener “La Eternidad.” And then there’s “Esa Fui Yo,” a tender-yet-defiant declaration of love and heartbreak, as she sings, “Y cuando te caiste quien te recogió, esa fui yo” over a rich cumbia groove, steeped in nostalgia and illuminated by the shimmer of a 12-string guitar. By the time you reach the flashy “Diamantes en mi Boca” or the melancholic closer “Contrabando,” her emotional range and high-pitched vocals leave you captivated. Estevie’s voice resonates throughout that lush blend of cumbia-pop, and leaves an impression that lingers long after the music fades. — ISABELA RAYGOZA
Check out more Latin recommendations this week below:
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Pierce the Veil leads Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart for a second time, lifting a spot to No. 1 on the Nov. 15-dated survey with “So Far So Fake.”
The veteran rockers from San Diego previously led with “Emergency Contact” for a week in August 2023.
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“Emergency Contact” and “So Far So Fake” are both on the same album, 2023’s The Jaws of Life. So why the two-plus-year gap between Alternative Airplay reigns? While not initially a promoted single, “So Far So Fake” was serviced to radio this summer after it went viral on shortform video platforms such as TikTok, spurred by a dance challenge set mostly to its instrumental break.
Boosted by that buzz, “So Far So Fake” debuted on the multimetric Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart in August, eventually rising to No. 8 later that month. It also became the band’s first Billboard Hot 100 entry, reaching No. 64.
In between “Emergency Contact” and “So Far So Fake,” Pierce the Veil made Alternative Airplay once via its No. 27-peaking cover of Radiohead’s “Karma Police” in June 2024. The band’s only other charter, “Circles,” hit No. 31 in 2016.
On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, “So Far So Fake” jumps 6-4 with 3.7 million audience impressions in the week ending Nov. 6, up 14%, according to Luminate. It’s Pierce the Veil’s highest-charted song on the tally, having surpassed “Emergency Contact” (No. 10).
“So Far So Fake” ranked at No. 16 on the most recently published Hot Rock & Alternative Songs tally (dated Nov. 8, reflecting data accumulated Oct. 24-30). In addition to its radio airplay, it drew 3.1 million official U.S. streams.
The Jaws of Life debuted at No. 1 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart in February 2023 and has earned 371,000 equivalent album units to date.
All Billboard charts dated Nov. 15 will update Tuesday, Nov. 11, on Billboard.com.
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The easy thing for Rosalía would have been to follow up 2022’s successful Motomami, which placed her on the brink of superstardom, with a quick album that walked that same path: Songs that treaded the line between her flamenco Spanish roots and Latin and reggaetón influences. It was a formula that yielded hits like “Despechá,” Rosalía’s take on merengue, and “La Fama,” her take on bachata alongside The Weeknd. The set provided an unlikely segue from her stunning but niche-appealing El Mal Querer, to a broad audience who embraced Rosalía and her sound with cult-like passion.
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It stands to reason, then, that something along those lines would follow in quick succession.
Instead, fans waited for two and a half years for LUX, an album that not only breaks parameters for Rosalía, but for the musical landscape as a whole. Recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, it’s an ambitious, complex, sprawling orchestral and operatic ouvre of 18 tracks, performed in 13 different languages, where Rosalía pushes her vocal prowess into untested waters. This isn’t your tried-and-done collection of pop songs set to symphonic arrangements, but rather a new take on pop (or is it classical?) that tests the limits of what genre is and where it falls in the spectrum of musical production and consumption especially in an era of fast-food music that’s quantified and discarded with grim abandon.
“Sexo, violencia y llantas” (Sex, Violence and Tires), the provocatively titled opener to Lux, starts with a piano intro that evokes a classical piano étude — a cross between Bach and Chopin — then gives way to Rosalía’s vocals set to a sustained acoustic bass line that final crashes in choruses and full string orchestra. The track ebbs and flows in rhythm, pacing and BPM’s, full of rubattos and crescendos, sounding every bit like a classical music composition, except it quite isn’t. The opening line – “Quién pudiera vivir entre los dos, primero amaré el mundo y luego amaré a Dios” (How nice it’d be to live between them both, first I’ll love the world, then I’ll love God) — establishes the foundation of an album and an artist tied to the terrestrial but aspiring to the spiritual and sublime, and actually reaching them more than once.
Lux keeps you on your toes. Divided into four movements, yet another nod to its classical ground, it nevertheless doesn’t adhere to the tradition of a single tempo or mood per movement, but instead veers from arrangements and styles in dizzying manner. Listen carefully, though, and you’ll find the “intentional structure” Rosalía sought to create throughout the album. “I was clear that I wanted four movements,” she told Billboard in her cover story. “I wanted one where it would be more a departure from purity. The second movement, I wanted it to feel more like being in gravity, being friends with the world. The third would be more about grace and hopefully being friends with God. And at the end, the farewell, the return.”
Does Lux follow the rules of classical composition? It doesn’t mean to, and sometimes, it runs all over the place (we can only imagine the Grammys and Latin Grammys discussing what category to place the album and tracks into). “Porcelana,” for example, sounds like four different segments glued together without much rhyme or reason. But Rosalía’s voice is irresistible, capable of going through pianissimos to forte with ease and support. Only a trained voice could deliver this tour de force, and you keep listening, rivetted, until the very end, moving from “Porcelana,” with its traces of reggaetón, urban and flamenco, to “Mio Cristo Piange Diamante,” a bona fide aria performed in Italian.
There are decided commercial nuggets here. “La Perla,” performed with Mexican trio Yahrtiza y su Esencia (with Yahritza’s soprano voice beautifully rising to the task of singing with Rosalía), is a deliciously naughty dis track aimed at a former lover and arranged as a waltz, both quaint and incisive. And “Dios Es Un Stalker” is as catchy and rousing as a mid tempo pop hit can be.
But this is an album that defies convention, arrangement and structure. Challenging but exquisite, we hope it forces others to delve deeper into their art, and make us wait just a little bit more if it means making us listen again and again — not because we’re immediately hooked, but because we want to discover more.
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If you’re itching to see Wicked: For Good early, well, you’re in luck. Amazon is giving Prime members the chance to see it four days early, ahead of the Nov. 21 release, and we’re showing you how to secure your seats.
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Amazon is hosting very exciting Prime Early Screening events for Wicked: For Good at select theaters across the U.S. on Nov. 17. The only way you can snag tickets is by signing in to your Amazon Prime account and then using this link to select seats at OzonAmazon.com (via Fandango). The screening is available in IMAX, Digital 3D and 4DX, in addition to your standard screenings.
You’ll still have to pay for these tickets, with pricing varying based on the format and cinema. However, you’ll get bragging rights for life because Prime members will be able to see Wicked: For Good in theaters before pretty much anyone else. If you aren’t a Prime member, you can get a 30-day free trial here and use it to get tickets to the early screening. The subscription will also come in handy for Amazon’s upcoming Black Friday sale. Once that 30-day free trial runs out, you’ll be paying $14.99 per month or $139 per year for the standard individual plan.
Along with your access to this Wicked screening, a Prime membership will give you fast, free shipping on millions of items, access to unlimited streaming of a whole host of movies and TV shows via Prime Video’s library, and access to exclusive deals such as Prime Day and year-round savings.
Still not satisfied? To fill the Wicked void, we’ve rounded up a bunch of Wicked-themed merch that you can shop online now. The list includes everything from Lush bath products and makeup cleansers to Swiffer mops, everything you need to fill your life with the magic of the movie. You can shop the comprehensive list here at ShopBillboard.
Following the box-office success that was Wicked in 2024, Wicked: For Good hits theaters on Friday, Nov. 21, just one day shy of the one-year anniversary of the film’s first half. The sequel was first announced on X in April by director Jon M. Chu’s “OzPhone.” The filmmaker wrote at the time, “With more space, we can tell the story of Wicked as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys of these beloved characters.”
Watch the Wicked: For Good trailer below.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
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Wu-Tang Day is fast approaching, and it’s time to celebrate.
The unofficial holiday is Sunday, Nov. 9, proclaimed by New York City Mayor Eric Adams in 2023, in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Wu-Tang Clan’s debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). The album arrived Nov. 9, 1993, hence the holiday. The album boasts a raw and underground sound the world of hip-hop hadn’t heard before at the time. Despite the album’s grittiness, it peaked at No. 41 on the Billboard 200.
Usually, fans of the hip-hop group will celebrate with special events and releases. The holiday is such a big deal that iconic New York City landmark the Empire State Building is often lit up in black and yellow, the colors of the Wu-Tang Clan logo. What’s not to celebrate? Wu-Tang Clan left an immeasurable mark on the industry, paving the way for other rap groups, including Odd Future, Killarmy, Sunz of Man and Black Market Militia. All this to say, Wu-Tang is forever, and its Nov. 9 holiday proves that.
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If you’re gearing up to celebrate the group, why not do so in style with these merch picks from Amazon? Amazon Music features an official merch page for the group, with tons of goodies, from snapbacks, tank tops, bomber jackets and so much more. Some of our favorites include the Wu-Tang Clan Souvenir Jacket for $199.99, a bomber style with striking graphics coming in shades of pink, red and yellow with black undertones.
You’ve also got the Wu-Tang Clan Final Chambers Legacy Tee for $29.99, a boxy distressed tee with a yellow Wu-Tang Clan graphic on the front set against a black background, mirroring the group’s official colors scheme. The Wu-Tang Clan World Wide Logo Black Snapback Cap for $17.80 is another one of our favorites. The snapback is structured with black paneling and a grayish silver Wu-Tang logo affixed to the front. The design is simple, but gets the point across.
Finally, we’ve got the Wu-Tang Clan Globe Hoodie for $29.99, a great piece to pick up, especially as we get into the chillier months. The hoodie comes in three different colors and features Wu-Tang graphics throughout. With so much from the merch store to choose from, we’ve picked out a few of our favorites that you can shop below or on Wu-Tang Clan’s official Amazon Music storefront now.
Shop Our Favorite Wu-Tang Clan Merch Below
Wu-Tang Clan Final Chambers Legacy Tee
A Wu-Tang Clan T-shirt.
Wu-Tang Clan Souvenir Jacket (US, Alpha, Large, Regular, Regular, Pink)
A pink Wu-Tang Clan bomber jacket.
Classic Black Wu-Tang Logo Tank Top
A Wu-Tang Clan tank top.
Classic Wu Logo Raglan Baseball Tee
A long sleeve Wu-Tang Clan baseball tee.
Wu-Tang Clan Globe Hoodie
$29.99
$39.99
25% off
A Wu-Tang Clan hoodie.
Wu-Tang Clan World Wide Logo Black Snapback Cap
$17.80
$20.00
11% off
A Wu-Tang Clan baseball cap.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
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Patti Smith’s latest memoir is a must-read for music fans, especially after the gut-punch that was her 2010 work titled Just Kids.
Upon its release Nov. 4, Bread of Angels: A Memoir is already No. 1 bestseller in rock band biographies on Amazon. The book is currently available to shop on Amazon, $21.98 hardcover, $14.99 on the Kindle and $32 paperback, or Barnes & Noble for $27. Barnes & Noble also sells a signed version of the book for just $30, a great keepsake for longtime fans of Smith and her work.
Rather than chronicling a specific point in time like Just Kids, Smith’s latest work goes back to the very beginning, like most traditional memoirs. The book allows the artist to look back at her early years of art, exploration and creativity that helped her become the literary and music icon she is today. ShopBillboard is a sucker for music and romance, and this memoir is chock full of it. Our favorite part? A section in which the punk poet recalls her chance meeting with husband Fred “Sonic” Smith, a guitarist for MC5, in 1976.
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Bread of Angels: A Memoir
$21.98
$30
27% off
$30
A memoir by Patti Smith.
“That’s when I first saw him. He stood by a white radiator in a blue overcoat. I noticed the threads where a button was missing. That fleeting moment was to redirect the whole of my life. Lenny introduced us simply: Fred Smith, Patti Smith, Patti Smith, Fred Smith,” Smith wrote, describing the moment that she’d met her soon-to-be husband. The chance meeting happened amid her Horses tour, the 1975 studio album that put the singer front and center of the New York punk-rock scene. “When we first met, I had no idea who he was, but I knew instantly he would be my life,” she lovingly added.
The recreation of that moment is extremely touching. Even if you aren’t a fan of the “Gloria” singer, her writing is just as impactful as her music. It paints a vivid picture of what she was feeling in that moment, a chance meeting with her soulmate.
In 1988, Fred collaborated with Patti on her 1988 album, Dream of Life. Fred was also the one to encourage Patti to keep writing, with her crediting his influence on a number of the songs she released after his death in 1994 at the age of 46. He was the inspiration for Patti’s song “Frederick.”
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The 2026 edition of MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN (MAJ), one of the country’s premier international music honors, is set for June 13 next year.
The Grand Ceremony, including the red carpet and presentation of the major categories, will be held that evening at TOYOTA ARENA TOKYO, while the Premiere Ceremony, which covers additional categories, will take place earlier that day at TOKYO DREAM PARK. The MAJ week, running from June 8 to 13, will also include artist performances alongside seminars and showcases featuring music industry professionals from Japan and abroad.
At a press conference held in Tokyo on Wednesday (Nov. 5), organizers revealed mid-year standings based on data from January through August 2025, covering the current entry pool of eligible works and artists. Nominees for Artist of the Year include some of the year’s most prominent acts: timelesz, HANA, Gen Hoshino, Mrs. GREEN APPLE, and Kenshi Yonezu, among others. For New Artist of the Year, the list includes CANDY TUNE, CENT, TENBLANK, HANA, Brandy Senki, MON7A, and ONE OR EIGHT.
The Song of the Year field features many of the year’s defining releases, such as AiNA THE END’s “On the Way,” Sakanaction’s “Kaiju,” JENNIE’s “like JENNIE,” Snow Man’s “CHARISMAX,” and multiple tracks from HANA (“Burning Flower,” “Blue Jeans,” “ROSE”), BE:FIRST’s “Muchu,” and Mrs. GREEN APPLE (“KUSUSHIKI,” “Darling,” “Heaven”), as well as Kenshi Yonezu (“BOW AND ARROW,” “Plazma”).
Meanwhile, Album of the Year contenders include acclaimed works such as Southern All Stars’ THANK YOU SO MUCH, Snow Man’s THE BEST 2020 – 2025, Fujii Kaze’s Prema, BABYMETAL’s METAL FORTH, and Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s 10.
Eligible works include songs and albums whose full official versions were first released between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2025, either on public digital services or in physical form (with some category exceptions). Winners are determined through voting by members of the music community.
The award categories have been restructured since the inaugural MAJ with 14 new categories added. To reflect the diversity of Japan’s music landscape, new Dance & Vocal categories (Group/Solo) and separate Boys Idol Culture and Girls Idol Culture Song awards (Group/Solo) have been introduced. In response to the rise of long-running hits and renewed attention on catalog music, a Back Catalog category has also been created to honor works that continue to be embraced over time. In addition, with vinyl experiencing a resurgence, an Analog Record category has been established. The Largest Live Audience (International) award and Best Music Video Director award have also been newly added.
Founded under the theme of “Connecting the world, illuminating the future of music,” MAJ was established by five major organizations in Japan’s music industry. At the inaugural event held in May, music professionals voted — with some category exceptions — to determine winners across 62 categories (including six major awards) from a pool of approximately 3,000 entries.
Mrs. GREEN APPLE took Artist of the Year, Creepy Nuts won Song of the Year with “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” tuki. earned New Artist of the Year, Fujii Kaze won Album of the Year with LOVE ALL SERVE ALL, YOASOBI took Top Global Hit From Japan with “Idol” and aespa won Best Song Asia with “Supernova.” The ceremony at ROHM Theatre Kyoto was streamed worldwide on YouTube.
Ceremony Date: Saturday, June 13, 2026
MAJ Week: June 8 (Monday) – June 13 (Saturday), 2026
Venue: TOYOTA ARENA TOKYO, Tokyo
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When Bob Dylan arrived in New York City in January 1961, he was a 19-year-old from Minnesota armed with an acoustic guitar and a head full of Woody Guthrie songs. His early recordings from that period — many featured on the just-released The Bootleg Series Volume 18: Through the Open Window, 1956-1963 — reveal a young artist still finding his voice, often mimicking the melodies and vocal styles of his heroes.
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Within a few months, Dylan would go through a transformation. The young singer-songwriter became an interpreter of others’ works, imbuing them with a unique character missing on earlier recordings. “The story of Volume 18 is Bob Dylan becoming Bob Dylan,” Sean Wilentz tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast. Wilentz, author of the 2010 book Dylan in America, wrote Volume 18‘s detailed, often fascinating 125-page liner notes that provides historical context for the expansive eight-CD set. “It’s about his coming of age, his maturation — first as a performer and then as a songwriter — to become the person that we think of [today].”
With Dylan surrounded by folk, blues, jazz and comedians such as Lenny Bruce, his artistic growth began immediately upon arriving in the Village in early 1961. By the time he was recording his self-titled debut album in November, Dylan had gained an ability to transform somebody else’s song and make it his own. “People will either imitate or they’ll just do a kind of a superficial rewrite,” says Wilentz, a professor of history at Princeton University. Dylan was an imitator when he moved to New York. Just a year later, who would write “Blowin’ in the Wind” and change the course of American music.
Dylan spent these formative months working relentlessly on his craft, writing songs just about anywhere he could. “He can be in the middle of a subway car and he’s writing a song,” says Wilentz. “He’s always writing songs — but he’s doing more than that. He’s learning how to play the guitar. He’s learning how to emote. He’s learning all kinds of things, and he’s working very hard at it. He’s also learning the entire spectrum of American song in a way that most kids just didn’t.”
This wasn’t just artistic growth — it was a metamorphosis. Dylan was no longer mimicking the artists who came before him; he was reshaping songs in his unique style. Wilentz points to Dylan’s recording of the Guthrie’s “Ramblin’ Round,” an outtake that appears on the first CD of Volume 18 as being emblematic of this evolution. “It’s fantastic,” Wilentz says. “You listen to it closely and it’s not Woody Guthrie at all, but it is Woody Guthrie. [Dylan] has turned it into his own song.” “Ramblin’ Round” doesn’t just pay homage — it reimagines Guthrie. Like many of the tracks on Volume 18, it’s a glimpse into an artist who would eventually reshape the American songbook.
Listen to the entire interview with Bob Dylan historian Sean Wilentz using the embedded Spotify player below, or go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeart, Podbean or Everand.
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A ripped piece of paper floats in front of EJAE’s face as she giggles with her castmates Rei Ami and Audrey Nuna over a video call. “My manager gave me a list of adjectives to use,” she says over Zoom, unable to stop herself from cackling.
Nuna immediately smirks. “Read them for us,” she shouts. The catalog includes gems like “incredible,” “humble,” “privileged,” and “accomplished,” but all three women immediately lock onto the inclusion of “breathtaking” on this list. “‘Breathtaking’ is good,” Ami laughs.
They’re all accurate words to describe exactly how the three members of the semi-fictional girl group HUNTR/X feel on Friday (Nov. 7), considering that EJAE, Ami and Nuna have just earned four Grammy nominations for their work together on the breakout hit Netflix film KPop Demon Hunters.
Alongside two standard nominations related to music for film — “Golden” earned a nod for best song written for visual media while the movie’s soundtrack notched a nomination for best compilation soundtrack for visual media — HUNTR/X also received two major category nominations, for best pop duo/group performance, and for song of the year, both for “Golden.”
So yes, “breathtaking” feels like a good word to describe the trio’s feelings. “The breaths have been snatched from our bodies,” Nuna says. “Our hearts are being pulled in so many different directions. But above all, I think we’re just very, very, very grateful to be a part of what feels like a very cultural and historic moment, and something that as kids we would have we craved so bad to see. Being a part of it is just really surreal.”
The nominations are just the latest piece of what has been a cultural takeover for KPop Demon Hunters. Not only has the film become Netflix’s most-watched movie in the platform’s history, but the music from the soundtrack — written primarily by EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick and a host of other well-established K-pop songwriters — has dominated the charts. “Golden” spent a whopping eight weeks at the summit of the Hot 100 and remains steady at No. 2 this week. The entirety of the soundtrack, meanwhile, earned two weeks at the top of the Billboard 200, and remains at No. 2 today.
For EJAE, who spent the last decade writing hit songs for K-pop acts like aespa, Twice and others, earning a Grammy nod specifically for her songwriting in the song of the year category is a fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
“It means so much, because I [was asked] in an interview once, ‘What’s a goal that you have?’ And mine was to get an award as a songwriter,” she says. “I don’t see many Asian women or Korean women in this industry, it’s hard to find, songwriter-wise. And so I hope that this can inspire others to keep going, because it felt impossible.”
The group’s nominations don’t only make history as a film-music crossover — they also make history for K-pop as a genre. With their four nominations, HUNTR/X becomes the first K-pop girl group to earn Grammy nominations, and one of two acts (alongside ROSÉ of Blackpink) to earn nominations in the same year, another first for the genre. Previously, only BTS had scored major nominations at the annual ceremony.
That lack of representation in the past is part of why many in the industry have begun asking whether or not K-pop should be represented with its own categories at the annual ceremony. For their part, all three members of HUNTR/X agree that K-pop does deserve to have space created for it at the Grammys. “It’s been proven that this is a genre that can really stand its own in the U.S. space, so it would make sense for this genre to be represented alongside so many other genres that are important to culture,” Nuna says.
With a soundtrack that has dominated music spaces around the globe for the past four months, KPop Demon Hunters has repeatedly defied expectations — which is in no small part why Ami feels particularly proud to be representing her community at the biggest music awards in the world. “As Korean women, from a very young age, we are taught to be quiet, to not be seen,” she says. “That really causes some weird cognitive dissonance early on, as Korean women who we are pursuing the art self expression where we have to be seen. We have to be loud and bold.”
But the singer makes it abundantly clear that while she, EJAE and Nuna remain incredibly grateful for their success, all three of them worked incredibly hard to earn these four nominations. “[KPop Demon Hunters] took nine years to create, there were endless demos, we have a legendary songwriter who has gone through the work of the industry, we have Audrey Nuna out on her own being an independent artist, we have the struggle that comes with being a solo Asian artist in America,” she says, her voice slowly rising. “We’ve had every door shut. We’ve been told, ‘You’re not good enough. You need to do more. You’re too Korean. You’re not American enough.’ So we deserve this. We worked very hard for this, and we are honored to have earned it.”
Trending on Billboard As nominations for the 2026 Grammys pour in, so are new music releases from artists who just might earn Recording Academy recognition for it next year — including Rosalía, Katy Perry, Kehlani and more. The buzziest release of the week might just be Lux, the long-awaited followup to 2022’s Motomami. The sprawling, […]
