EJAE Profile: Songwriter, Rumi Voice, Solo Music, Facts and Videos
Kim Eun-jae trained for a stage that never arrived, built a second career writing other women’s biggest notes, then returned through an animated heroine who was also terrified her real voice would cost her everything. “Golden” did not make EJAE talented overnight. It made the credits impossible to ignore.
Profile
| Stage name | EJAE |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Kim Eun-jae (김은재) |
| Born | December 6, 1991 |
| Birthplace | Seoul, South Korea |
| Nationality | South Korean and American |
| Occupation | Singer · songwriter · record producer · vocal performer |
| Education | New York University, music production and psychology |
| Virtual-group credit | HUNTR/X, Rumi’s singing voice |
| Major songwriting credits | Red Velvet “Psycho” · aespa “Drama” and “Armageddon” · NMIXX “O.O” and “DICE” |
| Solo debut | “In Another World,” October 24, 2025 |
| Official fandom | WINGS |
| Western zodiac | Sagittarius |
| Chinese zodiac | Metal Goat |
Official Socials
Official YouTube · @EJAEofficial
Instagram · @ejae_k
TikTok · @ejae_k
- Early life and family
- Twelve years at SM Entertainment
- Songwriting career and credit trail
- KPop Demon Hunters and Rumi
- Solo music and soundtrack vocals
- HUNTR/X live performances
- Fandom file
- Selected credit map
- Official video tracking history
- Sources and receipts
Early life and the family footnote people always discover later
Kim Eun-jae was born in Seoul and began training in the Korean entertainment system while most children were still negotiating bedtime. She is the granddaughter of Shin Young-kyun, the actor and lawyer whose career stretched across hundreds of Korean films. That connection gave her a famous name in the family tree. It did not hand her a debut.
EJAE grew up between Korean and American cultural spaces and later studied at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. The bilingual, bicultural part of her life became crucial much later, when KPop Demon Hunters needed songs that sounded like commercial K-pop while carrying story, shame, Korean language, humor, and musical-theater precision at the same time.
Contents
- Early life and the family footnote people always discover later
- Twelve years at SM Entertainment without the debut ending
- The songwriter behind songs people already knew
- KPop Demon Hunters and the voice that stayed in the movie
- Solo music before and after the world learned her name
- When HUNTR/X stepped out of the screen
- Fandom file
- Sources
Twelve years at SM Entertainment without the debut ending
EJAE entered SM Entertainment in 2003 at age eleven and remained connected to the trainee system until 2015, a twelve-year stretch split between school, travel and repeated preparations for a debut. At eighteen she was offered a place in a ballad group, but chose college because she still wanted a solo path and took education seriously. She later fast-tracked studies in music production and psychology at New York University while expecting that a solo debut might still follow. SM ultimately released her without debuting her.
That sentence sounds neat now because people know what happened afterward. Living it was not neat. She had spent her childhood and adolescence preparing for one job, then had to build a different identity inside the same industry. She later described the rejection as a redirection, but the useful part of that phrase is that redirection still requires walking.
Her trainee life was not one uninterrupted dorm story. She moved between Seoul and the United States, attended an international school in Korea, protected time for education and eventually built a life in the New York area. Interviews describe hours booked alone in practice rooms after formal lessons ended. The system also policed small physical habits, food, posture and appearance. Those details explain why she talks about the period as literal blood, sweat and tears rather than cute pre-debut trivia.
The trainee years were not wasted. EJAE learned to hear songs as performance objects. She thinks about how a line will move, how a chorus might be staged, and what kind of image a sound could create. That training shows in her work because her songs rarely behave like audio files waiting for choreography. The movement is already hiding inside them.
The songwriter behind songs people already knew
The first bridge back into the studio
After graduation, EJAE briefly considered music therapy and had to learn how to make decisions outside a company system that had shaped most of her childhood. An OST recording introduced her to producer Shinsadong Tiger, who invited her into a writing session. That path led to Hani’s EXID solo “Hello” in 2016. Andrew Choi later became an important mentor and collaborator. By 2017, EJAE was back inside an SM songwriting camp, this time as a creator whose melody could be chosen without her needing to fit an idol lineup.
Before the public connected EJAE’s face and voice to Rumi, K-pop listeners had been hearing her work for years. She co-wrote and demoed Red Velvet’s “Psycho,” created at a 2017 songwriting camp and inspired by an argument with her long-distance fiancé. The song arrived in 2019 and became one of Red Velvet’s defining singles.
Her credits spread across generations and companies. They include aespa’s “Drama” and “Armageddon,” NMIXX’s “O.O” and “DICE,” TWICE’s “Last Waltz,” LE SSERAFIM’s “So Cynical (Badum),” and work for artists including Suzy, Taeyeon, EXID, and others. She writes melody, lyrics, vocal architecture, and the kind of demo performance that can quietly become the blueprint for an idol’s final recording.
This is the part of K-pop people forget when they talk as if a group invented a song in the makeup chair. EJAE was one of the adults in rooms building the sound, often without the public knowing her name.
A credit trail, not a five-song highlight reel
The longer catalog begins with EXID’s “Hello,” Hani’s “Woo Yoo,” Byul’s “Leaves,” Suzy’s “SObeR,” Babylon’s “Karma,” Seo In-young’s “Always,” and Red Velvet’s “Psycho.” It continues through Taeyeon’s “Sorrow,” TWICE’s “Pieces of Love” and “Last Waltz,” Chung Ha and LACHICA’s “Bad Girl,” Red Velvet’s “Birthday,” NMIXX’s “O.O” and “DICE,” aespa’s “Drama” and “Armageddon,” LE SSERAFIM’s “So Cynical (Badum),” FIFTY FIFTY’s “Starry Night,” and other cuts whose exact roles range from lyrics and topline to composition, background vocals and production.
She also co-produced the Girl Crush K-Pop Vocals sample pack for Splice. That project makes the hidden labor unusually literal: phrasing, ad-libs and vocal textures packaged as building material for other producers. In February 2025 she signed a publishing agreement with Prescription Songs. In October 2025, WME announced representation following the film’s breakout.
KPop Demon Hunters and the voice that stayed in the movie
EJAE joined the music development for KPop Demon Hunters near its earliest stages, around 2019 and 2020. She came in as a songwriter and recorded extensive demos while the directors, composers, and production teams searched for the musical identity of HUNTR/X and the Saja Boys. Some sequences went through dozens of versions.
She helped write “How It’s Done,” “Golden,” “Your Idol,” “What It Sounds Like,” and “Prologue (Hunter’s Mantra).” Her demos carried lead vocals, harmonies, background parts, and temporary voices for characters across the film. The creative team heard her as Rumi for so long that the demo singer became the character’s official singing voice.
For CVM filing, HUNTR/X is the virtual K-pop group and Rumi is its animated leader. EJAE is the real artist who supplies Rumi’s singing voice and shares HUNTR/X performance credits with Audrey Nuna and REI AMI. The same recording therefore belongs in the HUNTR/X group file, Rumi’s member file and EJAE’s artist file. Arden Cho remains Rumi’s speaking actor. Those are connected credits, not one merged identity.
Her film work extends beyond HUNTR/X vocals. She co-wrote the Saja Boys’ “Your Idol,” proving that a songwriter credit does not make her a member of that virtual group. She also sings Rumi’s part in “Free” opposite Andrew Choi as Jinu. “How It’s Done” was the hardest sequence to solve, with many passes before its everyday phrase became the hook. “Hunter’s Mantra” drew on pansori feeling, while “Golden” had to work as a chart song, an identity reveal and an almost impossible vocal plot point at the same time.
That casting matters because Rumi’s story echoed EJAE’s own pressure to appear perfect while hiding the part of herself she thought would make her unacceptable. EJAE pulled her trainee heartbreak into “Golden.” The high notes sound triumphant because the lyric knows what it costs to believe the triumph.
“Golden,” performed with Audrey Nuna and REI AMI as HUNTR/X, topped the Billboard Hot 100. By 2026 it had won a Golden Globe, Grammy, and Academy Award for Best Original Song. The songwriter who had once been told the debut window had closed walked onto the world’s largest awards stages because an animated heroine used her voice to stop hiding.
Solo music before and after the world learned her name
EJAE did not begin singing in 2025. Her soundtrack appearances include “Whisper in the Dark” for Monster, “Take It Slow” for Woman of 9.9 Billion, “Midnight Cinderella” for Dinner Mate, and “Once Again” for Genesis. These recordings show the same flexible upper register and emotional precision that later made Rumi sound believable.
Her official debut solo single, “In Another World,” arrived on October 24, 2025. “Time After Time” followed in February 2026. The solo work is less interested in proving she can survive a “Golden” high note and more interested in what her voice sounds like when it is not attached to another artist’s concept or an animated character’s crisis.
Her pre-breakout vocal discography includes “Take It Slow” for Woman of 9.9 Billion, “Midnight Cinderella” for Dinner Mate, “Whisper in the Dark,” “Once Again,” and the Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts song “Ocean of Love.” She also contributed to “Rebirth,” a video-game song recognized by the Hollywood Music in Media Awards.
“In Another World” was written with Breagh MacKinnon and Ted Andreville and released through EJAE’s own artist channel on October 24, 2025. “Time After Time” followed on February 6, 2026, with credits including EunJae Kim, Rollo, Drew Scott and Vaughn Oliver. The releases move her from demo singer and character voice into a catalog where the concept belongs to EJAE herself.
The 2025 music video for “Take It Slow” also gave an older OST song a new life after the audience finally knew who had been singing it. It is a funny reversal. Usually fame sends people digging for childhood clips. EJAE’s archive contained fully formed vocals waiting for the name recognition to catch up.
When HUNTR/X stepped out of the screen
EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI began appearing together as the real vocal performers attached to HUNTR/X. Their first surprise “Golden” performance arrived on Saturday Night Live in October 2025, followed by a full television performance on The Tonight Show. The trio later appeared at major public and awards events, including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the 2026 Oscars. These appearances do not replace Rumi, Mira and Zoey as the group’s fictional members. They are the credited singers performing the soundtrack in the real world.
“Golden” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, while the soundtrack reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Its awards run included the Golden Globe, Grammy and Academy Award for Best Original Song. EJAE’s speeches repeatedly framed the result as rejection redirected rather than an overnight discovery.
Fandom file
Selected credit map
| 2016–2019 | EXID “Hello,” Hani “Woo Yoo,” Suzy “SObeR,” Red Velvet “Psycho,” plus early OST and independent work |
|---|---|
| 2020–2022 | Taeyeon “Sorrow,” TWICE “Pieces of Love” and “Last Waltz,” Chung Ha with LACHICA “Bad Girl,” Red Velvet “Birthday,” NMIXX “O.O” and “DICE” |
| 2023–2024 | aespa “Drama” and “Armageddon,” LE SSERAFIM “So Cynical (Badum),” FIFTY FIFTY “Starry Night,” and additional catalog work |
| 2025 | HUNTR/X “How It’s Done,” “Golden,” “What It Sounds Like” and “Hunter’s Mantra”; Saja Boys “Your Idol”; Rumi and Jinu “Free”; solo single “In Another World” |
| 2026 | Solo single “Time After Time” and continuing HUNTR/X live activity |
Credits are role-sensitive. Writing a song for a virtual group does not make EJAE an animated member, and singing for Rumi does not make Rumi a stage name. CVM connects the releases across the relevant group, character and real-artist profiles.
Music, reviews, and related worlds
Start with KPop Demon Hunters. The RaeRae Reacts music archive will collect “In Another World,” “Take It Slow,” and future EJAE videos through her tags.
YouTube tracking history
Official EJAE solo videos and the primary HUNTR/X collaboration attached to her real-artist profile. CVM’s collector refreshes total views and begins daily history after snapshots on separate calendar days.
Sources
- Recording Academy career profile
- Netflix Tudum songwriting interview
- Yonhap interview and career overview
- TIME on the film’s music and EJAE’s role
- Forbes 2026 interview
- Marie Claire on trainee years, education and solo direction
- Netflix oral history of “Golden”
- EJAE on Apple Music
The songwriter and the singer are finally the same public person
EJAE’s breakthrough looks sudden only if the years before the public knew her name are removed. She trained at SM Entertainment for more than a decade, left the idol route without a debut, learned to build songs for other voices, and became one of the writers trusted with emotionally and technically demanding K-pop records. KPop Demon Hunters did not create that craft. It placed her demos, vocal production, cultural memory, and own voice in a story large enough that the audience finally asked who had been doing the work.
Golden required more than a high note
“Golden” had to function as a HUNTR/X single, a narrative turning point, Rumi’s attempt at self-definition, and a pop record that could survive outside the film. EJAE co-wrote the song and performed Rumi’s singing voice, but the credits remain collaborative: Mark Sonnenblick, Teddy Park, 24, IDO, and other contributors shaped the final work. Naming that team does not reduce her. It shows the exact environment in which her melodic instinct, bilingual phrasing, demo performance, and understanding of shame became indispensable.
Awards do not replace the work
The 2026 awards run, including the Academy Award for Best Original Song, gave “Golden” institutional recognition that would have sounded fictional when EJAE was being told her voice did not fit the idol plan. The useful analysis is not that rejection was secretly a gift. Rejection cost time and changed her life. The later win proves that one gatekeeper’s category can be smaller than the talent standing outside it; it does not make the years of uncertainty magically necessary.
Solo music changed the direction of the spotlight
“In Another World” arrived in October 2025 as her formal solo debut, followed by “Time After Time” in February 2026. These songs matter because they are not Rumi bonus tracks. EJAE can use the dramatic architecture listeners recognize from her soundtrack work while writing from an adult life that belongs to her. The voice is no longer evidence submitted on behalf of a fictional character or another artist. It is the artist identity, with all the frightening freedom that implies.
Current status in August 2026
EJAE is an active Korean-American singer-songwriter, producer, and screen-music collaborator. Her current catalog includes solo releases, extensive K-pop writing credits, the singing role of Rumi, and film songs that continue to generate official clips and credited relationships. CVM Sekai routes HUNTR/X and character pages separately because a performer, a fictional character, and a fictional group are connected without being the same entity. Clean routing is how admiration avoids becoming a database fever dream.
Current CVM Sekai cards
IN ANOTHER WORLD — EJAE official MV React
The solo debut reviewed through grief, acceptance, vocal production, image language, and replay discoveries.
What It Sounds Like — HUNTR/X React
A participation-aware soundtrack route linking EJAE’s performance to Rumi, Mira, Zoey, and HUNTR/X.
Official video tracker
EJAE “In Another World” official music videoDaily+6.1KTotal views7.3M- EJAE “Take It Slow” official music videoDaily+282Total views328.3K
- “What It Sounds Like” official song clipDaily+148.9KTotal views218.1M
- “Free” official lyric videoDaily+121.3KTotal views222M
Verified sources
- GRAMMY: EJAE songwriter and singer profile
- Netflix Tudum: EJAE and Mark Sonnenblick on Golden
- Associated Press: 2026 Academy Award result
- Apple Music: EJAE official catalog
React image cards
Static cards route each exact official upload to its own in-depth React. Every card repeats that React’s featured and hero image so the archive stays visually traceable.
