EJAE at the World Cup: Who Is She and Why Did She Sing in Korean at the Opening Ceremony?

📷 Photo: @ejae_k / FIFA · Estadio Azteca, Mexico City · 2026

If you watched the 2026 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony and heard Korean lyrics echoing through Estadio Azteca in Mexico City — that was EJAE. And if you're asking who she is, you're not alone. By the end of this, you'll understand exactly why this moment was bigger than it looked.

What Happened at the Opening Ceremony

On June 11, 2026 (June 12 KST), legendary Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli took the stage at Estadio Azteca to perform "DNA" — the official 2026 FIFA World Cup anthem. Standing beside him, in a striking blue halter-neck gown with white floral details, was EJAE.

While David Guetta and Megan Thee Stallion are also featured on the track, only Bocelli and EJAE performed live at the opening ceremony. And EJAE delivered her entire portion of the anthem in Korean — making it one of the most cross-cultural moments in World Cup opening ceremony history.

After the performance, she posted on social media: "I can't believe what just happened. It was truly a glorious moment."

The Korean internet lost it. But for international fans who didn't know her name yet, the reaction was simple: who is this person, and why is the World Cup singing in Korean?

📷 Photo: @ejae_k · 2026

So Who Is EJAE?

EJAE's real name is Kim Eun-jae (김은재). She's a Korean-American singer, songwriter, and producer — and her story is one of the most compelling second-act narratives in K-pop history.

At age 11, she became a trainee at SM Entertainment — the same label behind aespa, EXO, and Girls' Generation. She trained for over a decade. And then in 2017, she was dropped as a singer. No debut. After more than ten years of work.

Most people would have walked away. EJAE didn't. She started attending SM's songwriting camps, fell in love with writing, and began building a catalog. Her fifth-ever written song was "Psycho" for Red Velvet in 2019 — a song that became one of the group's biggest hits. She went on to write for aespa ("Drama," "Armageddon"), LE SSERAFIM, TWICE, and NMIXX.

She was, for years, one of K-pop's most important behind-the-scenes voices. And almost nobody outside the industry knew her name.

KPop Demon Hunters Changed Everything

In June 2025, Netflix released KPop Demon Hunters — an animated film about a K-pop girl group that secretly fights demons. EJAE co-wrote the film's songs and served as the singing voice of the lead character, Rumi.

The film became Netflix's most-watched animated feature of all time. And "Golden" — the film's signature song, co-written by EJAE — became the longest-running number one by a girl group in the 21st century on the Billboard Hot 100. It held the top spot for eight weeks.

Then came the awards. "Golden" earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song — the first K-pop-associated song ever nominated at the Academy Awards. EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami performed it live at the Oscars as the first all-Asian musical act in the ceremony's history. The song also won a Grammy. And a Golden Globe. EJAE — who was dropped as a trainee eight years earlier — was suddenly one of the most decorated songwriters in the world.

Why She Wrote the Korean Lyrics for "DNA"

When FIFA approached EJAE to be part of the official 2026 World Cup anthem, she had one thing on her mind: she wanted to write the Korean lyrics herself.

"It's especially meaningful because I was able to write Korean lyrics in the song — representing South Korea on this stage is such an honor," she said in a FIFA statement.

The lyrics carry a message of perseverance and resilience — themes that, given her own story, feel anything but accidental. And there's a deeply personal reason the World Cup means so much to her specifically. In a Billboard interview, she shared: "One of my favorite childhood memories is being in Seoul during the 2002 World Cup, and seeing the city unite. I'll never forget the feeling of seeing strangers on the street hug each other and celebrate."

Twenty-four years later, she's the one on the stage. In a blue dress. Singing in Korean. At the biggest sporting event on earth.

🇰🇷 THE KOREAN SIDE

Korean fans — especially those who followed her trainee years and her K-pop songwriting work — reacted with a wave of emotion that's hard to overstate. Comments like "she finally made it to the biggest stage" and "this is the ultimate comeback story" were everywhere. The fact that she insisted on writing and performing the Korean lyrics herself — rather than simply being a featured artist — resonated deeply. Korea saw this not just as one person's achievement, but as a cultural moment: the Korean language at the center of the World Cup, not the sidelines.

🌍 THE GLOBAL SIDE

For international audiences, the reaction split into two camps. Soccer fans who didn't know K-pop were genuinely surprised to hear Korean at a World Cup opening ceremony — many took to Reddit and X to ask who she was and what language was being sung. K-pop fans who knew "Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters absolutely lost it, flooding social media with clips of the performance. The crossover between the two groups discovering each other in real time was its own kind of World Cup moment.

📊 THE GAP

Here's the thing that gets lost in translation: for Korean fans, EJAE's presence at the World Cup feels like a culmination — the payoff to a decade-long story they've been watching. For global fans, she appeared almost out of nowhere, defined entirely by what she did in that moment. Both reactions are valid. But understanding the full arc — trainee at 11, dropped at 26, wrote "Psycho" at 27, won an Oscar at 33, sang at the World Cup at 33 — is what makes this genuinely extraordinary. It's not just a good performance. It's one of the great K-pop stories ever told.

Why This Matters for K-Pop

Jungkook performed "Dreamers" at the 2022 Qatar World Cup opening — a song with over 450 million YouTube views — and it was a landmark moment for BTS and for K-pop visibility globally. But that was a K-pop star, performing a K-pop-adjacent song.

EJAE's moment is different. "DNA" is the official FIFA anthem — not a K-pop contribution to the soundtrack, but the anthem itself. And Korean lyrics are embedded in it by design, written by a Korean-American woman who fought her way back from being dropped as a trainee to become one of the most decorated songwriters in the world.

The Korean language has never been at the center of a World Cup opening ceremony before. It is now.

FAQ

Who is EJAE?
EJAE (real name Kim Eun-jae) is a Korean-American singer-songwriter. She's an Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe winner for "Golden" from Netflix's KPop Demon Hunters, and a former SM Entertainment trainee who was dropped as a singer in 2017 before reinventing herself as a songwriter.

What is "DNA" and who performs it?
"DNA" is the official 2026 FIFA World Cup anthem, performed by Andrea Bocelli, David Guetta, Megan Thee Stallion, and EJAE. EJAE wrote the Korean-language portion of the lyrics herself.

What K-pop songs has EJAE written?
Among her credits: Red Velvet's "Psycho," aespa's "Drama" and "Armageddon," LE SSERAFIM's "So Cynical (Badum)," TWICE's "Last Waltz," and NMIXX's "O.O" and "DICE."

🎤 Key Details

Name: EJAE (Kim Eun-jae / 김은재)
Nationality: Korean-American
Song: "DNA" — Official 2026 FIFA World Cup Anthem
Co-performers: Andrea Bocelli, David Guetta, Megan Thee Stallion
Venue: Estadio Azteca, Mexico City · June 11, 2026
Awards: Grammy, Oscar (Best Original Song), Golden Globe — "Golden" (KPop Demon Hunters)
Notable K-pop credits: Red Velvet "Psycho," aespa "Drama," LE SSERAFIM, TWICE, NMIXX
Former trainee: SM Entertainment (age 11–26, dropped 2017)

💬 Jamie's Take:

"I've been following EJAE's story since the KPop Demon Hunters era, and watching her perform at the World Cup opening ceremony genuinely gave me chills. She was dropped by SM after over a decade of training. She rebuilt herself from scratch. She wrote 'Psycho.' She won an Oscar. And now she's standing in Estadio Azteca singing in Korean in front of the entire world. There's a version of this story where she disappeared quietly in 2017 and nobody ever knew her name. Instead, she's the reason Korean lyrics just played at the World Cup opening ceremony. If that's not the most K-pop story ever told — I don't know what is."

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