Last night on The Tonight Show, the singing voices of KPop Demon Hunters performed together for the first time. Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami’s voices have been heard by millions of people in the musical and its soundtrack, but other than a brief cameo on last weekend’s Saturday Night Live, we hadn’t heard them perform together outside of the studio. While I would have loved for it to be on a stage that wasn’t in proximity to Jimmy “We don’t know what fascism is on this show” Fallon, hearing the voices of Huntr/x absolutely nail the anthemic “Golden” on stage was delightful. What a victory lap.
The performance was set to footage from the movie, including both of the major scenes in which the group sings “Golden” in the musical. It starts with footage from the music video premiere that debuts the song to the public, and ends with Huntr/x’s performance of the song at the Idol Awards in the film’s third act. Catch me feeling sentimental seeing this performance, as it echoes the movie itself, in which fans had to wait for quite some time to hear Huntr/x perform the song live because of all the demon-hunting drama going on behind the scenes. But also, as many fans point out in the comments, this is the first time Ejae, the voice of lead singer Rumi, has performed live in many years. She has primarily worked behind the scenes in the music industry, and now she’s finally getting to sing her #1 song to an audience of millions.
Elsewhere in the show, Fallon revealed to the group that the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack has gone platinum, having sold one million copies in the U.S. alone. What a special night, and hopefully there are more to come. It would be great to hear more songs from the movie down the line. I’m crossing my fingers for a performance of “What It Sounds Like” with a choir backing the girls up.
