Golden, the breakout hit from the film KPop Demon Hunters, has become the first K-pop song to win a Grammy Award. Performed by the fictional band Huntr/x, the song won best song for visual media and is also nominated for song of the year.
Released last June, KPop Demon Hunters became Netflix’s most-viewed film of all time, with more than 480 million views. Its soundtrack also topped the Billboard charts.
Blackpink singer Rosé is also nominated for three awards at Sunday’s ceremony for her song APT, including song and record of the year. Last August, the Recording Academy expanded its voting body to include several figures from the K-pop industry, among them Seventeen’s Woozi, Enhypen’s Jungwon and Le Sserafim’s Huh Yunjin.
The premiere ceremony took place at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theatre, opposite the main Grammy Awards venue. Eighty-six of the night’s 95 awards were presented, covering most genre categories.
Other early winners included British artists Yungblud, The Cure and FKA Twigs. The Dalai Lama won best audiobook, while eight-year-old Aura V became the youngest Grammy recipient in history after winning best children’s album.
Ahead of the main televised ceremony, Kendrick Lamar bagged three awards, including best rap song for TV Off.
The first prize of the night went to Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, who won best pop duo or group performance for their Wicked duet Defying Gravity. Neither artist was present to accept the award. It was Grande’s third Grammy and Erivo’s second.
Yungblud won best rock performance for his live version of Black Sabbath’s Changes, recorded during Ozzy Osbourne’s farewell concert in Birmingham last year. Sharon Osbourne was seen weeping as the award was announced.
The Cure won their first-ever Grammy Awards, taking best alternative album for Songs of a Lost World and best alternative recording for its lead single, Alone. The band were unable to attend, as they were at the funeral of keyboard player Perry Bamonte, who died on Christmas Eve.
FKA Twigs won best dance/electronic album for Eusexua. R&B singer Kehlani became the first winner to reference political unrest in the US after winning best R&B performance for Folded.
The premiere ceremony was streamed live on YouTube and featured an orchestral performance by Swedish singer Zara Larsson. Her single Midnight Sun was nominated for best dance/pop recording but lost to Lady Gaga’s Abracadabra, underlining Gaga’s strength in the major categories later in the night.





