After BABYMONSTER faced heavy criticism for their November 29, 2025, performance of “Golden” at the 2025 MAMA Awards, fans came armed with videos and receipts. The internet suddenly resurfaced interviews from EJAE, the original singer and composer of “Golden” for the movie KPop Demon Hunters. EJAE revealed that the song was never designed for a human singer in the first place. It was created for an animated character and intentionally pushed into unrealistically high territory.
BABYMONSTER fans shared two EJAE interviews: In the first one, the singer and songwriter confessed that if she had known she would end up singing it herself, she wouldn’t have made it that difficult. She explained that the extreme high notes were crafted to fit Rumi’s storyline, not a live stage in the real world. Another clip went viral where EJAE broke down the vocal concept. She said they purposely strained the character’s voice to make it sound like someone singing with a tone that wasn’t their natural one, as it reflected the struggle Rumi was going through in the story.
So EJAE, the original singer & composer of GOLDEN said that the song is not for a singer, its for an animation bcs the highnotes are unrealistically HIGH. She said the song is so difficult to perform & if she knew she was going to sing it, she wouldn’t have made it this difficult pic.twitter.com/OtMvsPZ20Q
— rosefor_u🦋 (@ahyconic_411) November 30, 2025
EJAE on Rumi’s singing voice for ‘Golden’.
“We had to strain her voice to show she was singing in a voice that’s not who she is. That was the point. This is why it was this non human note to reach and that was ALL on purpose.”
This is for all the people who criticised Ahyeon. pic.twitter.com/9y152z1DDm
— ｡❍ (@pinksbabymon) November 30, 2025
Armed with this context, fans MONSTIEZ used EJAE’s statements to defend Ahyeon and the other BABYMONSTER members. They pointed out that critics were judging the girls using standards the original composer and singers herself said were impossible. They argued that attempting a song crafted to be “non-human” was already brave enough. The conversation changed, with fans calling out the unfair scrutiny placed on young performers replicating a track that was specifically made for a movie moment.
