Huntr/x Turn Times Square into a K-Pop Stage

The vocal trio behind Huntr/x from the upcoming animated film KPop Demon Hunters — Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami — turned Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve into a K-pop-meets-alt-R&B showcase with a sleek live rendition of “Golden,” signaling how seriously Hollywood is betting on this hybrid of anime aesthetics and Korean pop culture. Their performance wasn’t just promo; it was a smart soft-launch for the movie’s sound, style, and crossover ambitions in 2025’s crowded pop landscape.


The Huntr/x trio from KPop Demon Hunters performing in a vibrant stage setting
Huntr/x — voiced by Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami — brings the animated world of KPop Demon Hunters to the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve stage. Image: Rolling Stone / promotional still.

From Animated Girl Group to Real-World Stage

KPop Demon Hunters is positioned as a crossover event: an animated feature that fuses K-pop idol mythology with supernatural demon-hunting action. Huntr/x, the in-universe girl group at the film’s center, is voiced by three rising artists who already straddle different corners of pop and R&B:

  • Ejae – a Korean vocalist with the tonal clarity and precision you’d expect from a trainee system background.
  • Audrey Nuna – New Jersey-born experimental R&B and rap artist known for alt-pop textures and understated swagger.
  • Rei Ami – Korean American singer with a genre-fluid approach, moving between sweet melodic lines and darker pop edges.

Having them front Huntr/x effectively turns the fictional group into a legitimate pop act that can perform on major broadcast stages. New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, with its massive mainstream viewership, becomes both a test run and a statement: this isn’t a novelty soundtrack single, it’s a proper pop campaign.


“Golden” on Live TV: How the Performance Landed

“Golden” is crafted as a cinematic K-pop track: polished production, big melodic hooks, and just enough grit in the bass and percussion to feel modern rather than cheesy. Live on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, the song translated as a mid-tempo, mood-heavy pop anthem—more vibe than fireworks, which is an interesting choice for a New Year’s broadcast.

Vocally, the division of labor was sharp:

  • Ejae handled the clean, soaring lines that anchor the hook, giving the chorus its “idol” sheen.
  • Audrey Nuna slipped comfortably into rhythmic, talk-sung passages and ad-libs, adding texture and attitude.
  • Rei Ami bridged the two, leaning into slightly darker tones that fit the demon-hunter concept.

The performance leaned on tight camera work and stylized lighting to hint at the film’s neon-drenched, demon-slaying universe. Instead of going full cosplay or choreography-heavy spectacle, they went for a sleek, almost alt-pop stage presence—more in line with global festival sets than a textbook K-pop music show.

“The three voices behind Huntr/x turned a promo spot into a proof-of-concept, selling not just the song but the entire world of KPop Demon Hunters in under four minutes.”

Visual Storytelling: Bridging Animation and Live Pop

One of the trickiest moves for any music-driven animated project is translating stylized, exaggerated visuals into a real-world performance without it feeling awkward. Huntr/x mostly side-stepped that uncanny valley by keeping the focus on contemporary stage aesthetics—sleek outfits, moody lighting, and minimal but precise choreography.

Rather than dressing like their on-screen characters, the trio leaned into a shared color palette and silhouettes that nod to the film’s urban-fantasy look. It signals to fans that the “real” artists and the animated idols are in conversation, not carbon copies of each other.

Colorful concert stage lights shining over a crowd, evoking a K-pop concert atmosphere
The New Year’s Rockin’ Eve stage lighting reinforced the cinematic, neon-soaked mood promised by KPop Demon Hunters. Image: Pexels / Vishnu R Nair.

In terms of TV pacing, “Golden” functions as a trailer-in-disguise: every wide shot of the trio lined up across the stage doubles as an invitation to imagine their animated counterparts in some demon-infested alleyway, mid-battle, still on beat.


Why This Performance Matters for K-Pop in Western Media

K-pop has been a fixture on New Year’s specials for a while—BTS, TWICE, and NewJeans have all taken turns on big U.S. stages—but Huntr/x sits at a different intersection. This is not a Korean label pushing a group into the U.S.; it’s a Hollywood project building a fictional K-pop unit with real, global-facing talent.

  1. Cross-media strategy: The performance sells a film, a soundtrack, and a brandable girl group all at once.
  2. Hybrid identity: Huntr/x is simultaneously an animated IP and a “real” act capable of touring, festivals, and more late-night or award-show stages.
  3. Representation with range: Having Korean and Korean American artists front the project maintains authenticity while still speaking to a broad global audience.

It also reflects how deeply Western entertainment has internalized K-pop’s playbook: world-building, strong visual identity, and multi-platform rollouts that make the music only one part of a larger story.


Inside “Golden”: Songwriting, Production, and Theme

Even outside the film context, “Golden” plays like a fully formed pop single designed for playlists and TikTok edits as much as for cinema end credits. Structurally, it leans into:

  • A slow-burn intro that spotlights vocal tone and atmosphere.
  • A build into a chorus that’s melodic rather than shouty—easy to sing, harder to forget.
  • Subtle production flourishes (vocal layering, percussive drops) that keep repeat listens interesting.

Lyrically, “Golden” sits in the now-familiar pop territory of resilience and glow-up, but with an undercurrent that fits the demon-hunter conceit: your “demons” are both internal and literal. That dual reading helps the track work for film marketing while still resonating as a relatable standalone song.

The production on “Golden” balances cinematic scale with stream-ready polish. Image: Pexels / cottonbro studio.

Strengths and Weaknesses of the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Set

As a four-ish-minute TV spot, the Huntr/x “Golden” performance did a lot of heavy lifting—but it wasn’t flawless. Evaluated as a pop moment and as a piece of film marketing, it shakes out like this:

What Worked

  • Chemistry: The trio already feels like a group, not three soloists sharing a stage.
  • Vocal blend: Their distinct timbres layer into a richer chorus, hinting at strong OST potential.
  • Brand clarity: You walk away knowing “Golden,” Huntr/x, and KPop Demon Hunters are a package deal.
  • Timing: Dropping this on New Year’s sets the tone for the film’s 2025 push.

Where It Fell Short

  • Impact vs. spectacle: For a New Year’s show known for maximalist pop, the staging felt slightly restrained.
  • Concept clarity: Casual viewers may not have fully grasped the demon-hunter angle without more explicit on-screen visuals or animation cross-cuts.
  • Memorability amid chaos: On a night stacked with legacy hits and familiar faces, a mid-tempo new song has to work harder to stick.
Crowd celebrating New Year with confetti and bright lights
New Year’s Rockin’ Eve is a high-noise environment for debuting new songs—both a risk and an opportunity. Image: Pexels / Wendy Wei.

Cultural Context: Demon Hunters, Idols, and Global Fandom

Demon hunting and pop idols might sound like an odd pairing if you’re outside K-pop and anime fandoms, but it actually tracks with long-standing genre traditions:

  • Anime has a rich history of magical girls and monster-fighting teens tied to music and transformation sequences.
  • K-pop idol narratives often revolve around intense training, inner demons, and the pressure of perfection.
  • Western superhero films have increasingly leaned on needle-drop soundtracks to build emotional and brand resonance.

Huntr/x, then, is less an outlier and more a synthesis of these trends, designed for a generation that moves fluidly between K-dramas, anime, TikTok edits, and U.S. pop charts without blinking.

Person watching an animated action scene on a large screen
The world of KPop Demon Hunters taps into a long-running love affair between animation, music, and heroic fantasy. Image: Pexels / Tima Miroshnichenko.

Trailers, Music Videos, and What to Watch Next

With “Golden” now introduced on such a big stage, the next logical steps in the rollout are clear: full music video, behind-the-scenes studio footage with Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami, and more integrated promos that splice live-performance clips with animated sequences from KPop Demon Hunters.

Expect to see “Golden” surface across:

  • Official trailers and TV spots for the film.
  • Streaming platforms as part of the original soundtrack listing.
  • Short-form video apps, especially via fan edits blending Huntr/x and other idol imagery.

While an official, fully animated music video will likely be the centerpiece, a performance-focused clip from New Year’s Rockin’ Eve could serve as a more grounded counterpart—proof that Huntr/x can live both on the big screen and on the stage.


Review Verdict: A Promising, If Slightly Underplayed, Debut

As a first major outing for Huntr/x, the “Golden” performance on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve did what it needed to do: introduce a new song, sell a new world, and prove that the voices behind KPop Demon Hunters can carry a live broadcast slot. It might not have been the night’s flashiest set, but it was one of the more intriguing, pointing toward a project that understands how young audiences consume pop: not as isolated singles, but as pieces of a larger universe.

If the film and the rest of the soundtrack can match the promise hinted at in this performance—stylistically confident, vocally strong, and visually cohesive—Huntr/x could end up as more than just a fictional girl group. They could be the template for how future animated franchises think about music: not an add-on, but a core engine of storytelling and fandom.

KPop Demon Hunters