BAFTA Awards 2026: KPop Demon Hunters Rocks the Stage with Golden

• Despite not meeting the eligibility criteria for competing for BAFTA Awards 2026, KPop Demon Hunters went viral for its Golden performance.
• The BAFTA 2026 set marks the track's first performance outside the United States.
• Golden has achieved massive industry accolades including a Grammy, a Golden Globe, and a Critics' Choice Award. It also received two Oscar nominations.

The 2026 EE BAFTA Film Awards at London's Royal Festival Hall turned into a concert for a few minutes on Sunday night. EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami (the singing voices of fictional K-pop trio HUNTR/X in Netflix's KPop Demon Hunters) performed Golden to an audience that, by most accounts, knew every word. The BAFTA 2026 Golden performance saw cameras catching attendees nodding, swaying, and singing along, with actress Chase Infiniti visibly mouthing the lyrics from her seat. EJAE opened solo on stage before Nuna and Ami appeared from different positions around the venue, weaving through the crowd to join her.

BAFTA 2026 Music Performance: Film ineligible for awards, but still on stage

KPop Demon Hunters didn't qualify for any BAFTA nominations. The British Academy ruled the film hadn't met theatrical release requirements, it debuted on Netflix and only reached cinemas later. Netflix filed a formal appeal under BAFTA's "exceptional circumstances" clause, arguing the film's subsequent theatrical run should count. BAFTA rejected the appeal.

Still, the organisers wanted the performance. Emma Baehr, BAFTA's executive director of awards and content, said when the act was announced that KPop Demon Hunters has had a "phenomenal impact on the hearts and minds of audiences of all ages around the world" since its release last summer.

Golden's chart run backs that up. The song spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (making HUNTR/X the first female group associated with K-pop to top the chart) and held the No. 1 position on the Billboard Global 200 for 18 weeks. By BAFTA night, it was approaching 4 billion total streams worldwide and remained the top-streamed song globally in early 2026, according to Nielsen/Luminate data cited by BAFTA. On the IFPI's year-end Global Single Chart, Golden ranked No. 2 for 2025, behind only Rosé and Bruno Mars' APT.

The song earned 2x Platinum certification from the RIAA in October 2025, roughly four months after the film's June 20 release. It then won Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 68th Grammy Awards on Feb. 1, 2026 the first Grammy win for any K-pop song in the ceremony's near-seven-decade history. Before that, it had already won Best Original Song at both the Golden Globes and the Critics' Choice Awards.

BAFTA Awards 2026: KPop Demon Hunters Steal The Show

The BAFTA performance adds to a run of live appearances of K-Pop Demon Hunters that began with The Tonight Show in October, continued through the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and NFL Christmas Gameday, and moved into New Year's Rockin' Eve. The trio are also set to perform at the BRIT Awards next weekend, where they'll be the first K-pop act to take that stage.

The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack placed No. 3 on the IFPI Global Album Chart for 2025, behind Taylor Swift's The Life of a Showgirl and Morgan Wallen. The franchise's merchandise and collectibles line, which expanded at Toy Fair 2026, signals ongoing commercial interest beyond music and film.

The film holds two nominations at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15: Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. It also swept the Annie Awards the day before the BAFTAs, winning 10 categories including Best Feature.

In a BAFTA Awards 2026 ceremony packed with entertainment news (from One Battle After Another's six wins to Robert Aramayo's historic double) KPop Demon Hunters' BAFTA 2026 viral performance held its own. The film continues through award season without a BAFTA nomination, but with a BAFTA 2026 music performance that, by the crowd's reaction, didn't seem to need one.