Rosé and KPop Demon Hunters Bag Major BRIT Awards Nominations

• Rosé bagged a BRIT nomination for her song APT., marking a watershed moment for K-pop soloists on the international scene.
• K-pop momentum has spread to animation as well, with KPop Demon Hunters’ Golden receiving BRIT recognition in the same category as Rosé.
• Together, the nods indicate K-pop's growing presence in major Western and European award circuits.

K-pop's global appeal reached a new high this week, as BLACKPINK's Rosé and the soundtrack of Netflix's animated hit KPop Demon Hunters received nominations at the 46th annual BRIT Awards, highlighting the genre's increasing impact on the global music stage. Rosé's solo single APT., a joint effort with Bruno Mars that captivated global markets and pop culture talks, received the nod for the International Song of the Year category. This made Rosé the first Korean solo artist to attain this level of recognition at the BRITs.

KPop Demon Hunters Break New Ground at the BRITs

In the same category is Golden, an epic track from the KPop Demon Hunters album by fictional group HUNTR/X (voiced by EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami). Golden has been charting success since its July 2025 release. It dominated the Billboard charts multiple times, including the Global 200, and reached number one in more than 30 countries. Its soundtrack was also certified double platinum in the United States and received similar awards in many other countries.

Notably, Golden's selection for International Group of the Year for HUNTR/X makes KPop Demon Hunters the first animated act to be acknowledged in that category at the BRITs. In 2025, Golden also topped the UK Official Singles Chart, making it one of the few K-pop songs to achieve this feat. The song spent a record-breaking amount of time at the top of the UK charts, indicating a rare mainstream breakthrough for the genre.

BRIT Awards Embraces Diversity Amid a Rising K-pop Scene

The nominees for the 2026 BRIT Awards, set to be held on Feb 28 in Manchester, are notably diverse. According to industry reports, women, non-binary, and mixed-gender acts account for approximately 70% of the nominations. British artists Olivia Dean and Lola Young are at the top of the list, but international categories reflect a widening global palette that now includes a lot of Korean talent, thanks to the global success of K-pop.

Rosé's APT., for instance, had a strong impact worldwide, including areas outside of the U.K. It won Song of the Year at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards and has received three Grammy nominations (including Song of the Year and Record of the Year), marking the highest ever for a K-pop song in Grammy history.

Similarly, KPop Demon Hunters continued to create waves in the other awards shows. Notably, Golden is nominated for two Oscars and a slew of Grammy nominations, including Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, Song of the Year, and Best Song Written for Visual Media. KPop Demon Hunters’ nods strongly reflects larger aim of K-pop's widespread success across traditional Western music institutions.

According to a Korea Times report from 2024, global K‑pop streams surged ~362 % from 2018 to 2023 on Spotify, with U.S. streams specifically growing to ~182 % in that period, showing significant traction in a major Western market. This made the United States one of the top K‑pop listening countries in 2023.

As for the U.K., industry reports note previous BTS releases, such as Map Of The Soul: 7 topped the UK Albums Chart at No.1. The enormous concert demand for the group, including earlier sold-out stadium gigs, suggests strong economic power of the genre.

Overall, as the BRIT Awards get closer, K-pop's appearance at one of Britain's most famous music celebrations solidifies its craze while representing another milestone in a cultural export that has grown from niche to global powerhouse in less than a decade.