HUNTR/X's "Golden" goes up, up, up a spot for its first week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
The aspirational song is from the soundtrack to the smash animated Netflix film KPop Demon Hunters and glows as the first Hot 100 leader for the act, whose music is voiced by EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI.
Notably, "Golden" is the ninth song associated with Korean pop to conquer the Hot 100 – and the first by female lead vocalists. It joins "Seven" by Jung Kook (featuring Latto) and "Like Crazy" by Jimin, both of BTS, in 2023, and BTS' six No. 1s in 2020-21: "Savage Love (Laxed Siren Beat)," with Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo; "Dynamite"; "Life Goes On"; "Butter"; "Permission To Dance"; and "My Universe," with Coldplay. (HUNTR/X singers EJAE and REI AMI were born in Seoul, South Korea; Nuna is from New Jersey.)
"Golden" is also the first IRL Hot 100 No. 1 by any act with a fictional background since the ensemble No. 1 "We Don't Talk About Bruno," which reigned for five weeks in February-March 2022. It, too, was released from a hit animated film, Disney's Encanto, and sung by multiple vocalists as their characters in the movie.
As for all-women collectives of three or more members, HUNTR/X is the first to top the Hot 100 in 24 years since Destiny's Child dominated with "Bootylicious" for two weeks in August 2001.
