It Really Is Their Moment
I truly wish I was able to write that I predicted this from the start. But five weeks ago I was genuinely half expecting Huntr/X and all the K-Pop Demon Hunters cast to be of passing interest. A one or two week fad based on people streaming the movie from which they came. But no, with every week the appeal of the songs grew and grew. Having made Top 10 status a fortnight ago and Top 5 a week ago, Golden ascends to add Official UK Singles Chart No.1 to its many global accolades. The arrival of a David Guetta remix of the track (a consequence of Republic Records suddenly realising they had a true mainstream crossover phenomenon on their hands) may have helped, but make no mistake this is also the end result of a genuine and surprising organic rise for what is, even devoid of its context of the animated movie from which it comes, a truly uplifting and inspiring pop record.
Golden thus becomes only the second ever K-Pop single to top the UK charts and the first by a female act, arriving almost 13 years since Gangnam Style by Psy brought the entire genre kicking and screaming to public consciousness. A novelty though it was, that track paved the way for the subsequent flowering of the corporate giants of BTS and Blackpink (plus a handful of other lesser known names) even if they remained for all that a niche appeal despite millions spent on marketing. In a way it is funny that the fictional Huntr/x and Saja Boys, intended as affectionate and broadly sketched parodies have somehow managed far more organic commercial success than their real world counterparts.
Gangnam Style was at the time notably the first ever No.1 hit to be performed predominantly in Korean. Golden is by contrast mostly in English but as with all "westernised" K-Pop and for that matter J-Pop tracks, it features a smattering of Korean lines to catch out the singalong performers. You can also note that it is the first No.1 single from a movie soundtrack (albeit one that never made it to cinemas) since Dua Lia's Dance The Night in August 2023.
We also cannot ignore the important detail that Huntr/x as a group don’t actually exist. They are, technically, cartoons. With this they join a small but still surprisingly extensive list of fictional and essentially non-human acts to have topped the UK singles chart in the past. Counting both animated and puppet characters together they now join:
The Archies (Sugar Sugar, 1969)
Spitting Image (The Chicken Song, 1986)
The Simpsons (Do The Bartman, 1991)
Mr Blobby (Mr Blobby, 1993)
Teletubbies (Teletubbies Say Eh-Oh, 1997)
Chef (Chocolate Salty Balls, 1998)
Bob The Builder (Can We Fix It, 1999 and Mambo No.5, 2000)
Crazy Frog (Axel F, 2005)
Gorillaz (Dare, 2005)
Peter Kay's Animated All-Star Band (The Official BBC Children In Need Medley, 2009)
The Encanto Cast (We Don't Talk About Bruno) (2022)
You'll notice however an important change in the way such acts are billed. Prior to the 2010s such pretend acts could be credited under their fictional names and everyone was content. But since then legal precedent and industry convention means that all performers on a track are entitled to, and generally given, their own credit. Hence We Don't Talk About Bruno was credited to each of the voice actors performing on the track in turn and so was effectively the world of real-world individuals. It is only because we "know" that the song was performed by cartoon characters that it joins the list above.
Golden keeps a foot in both camps (tries to play both sides you might say) by crediting the song both to Huntr/x but also the women who perform the singing voices of the group. That means though we can give them all their due here, Kim "EJAE" Eun-Jae is the voice of Rumi and also the co-writer of both Golden and much of the movie soundtrack, Audrey Nuna is the voice of Mira, and Sarah Yeeun "Rei Ami" Lee sings for Zoey. The group are Huntr/x, they are indeed a cartoon pop act, but all three women can claim bragging rights as performers of a No.1 single. As indeed technically so should Andy Kim for Sugar Sugar, Nancy Cartwright for Do The Bartman and Neil Morrissey for the two Bob The Builder hits. But they were released in a different age.
Before I finally move on, the presence of Golden at the top of the charts truly cements the K-Pop Demon Hunters film as a phenomenon beyond anything its creators ever imagined. An animated love note to both the musical genre and elements of Korean culture it has managed an extraordinary crossover appeal, lapped up by teens who love the music and we adults who can appreciate its arch campness and the self-aware humour which always stays on the right side of being too knowing.
This is their moment, and together they Glowin'. All we need now is for Official Charts to arrange the creation of an image of the three girls holding a No.1 award. Make it happen Lauren.
Other Songs Are Available
Sympathies then to the two former No.1 singles Daisies and Dior which all nudge down a place to make way for Golden. With Manchild, Ordinary and Survive preceding them both we have now had six No.1 singles in a row with one word titles for the first time in chart history.
Breaking up what would be an entire Top 7 of single word titles is the week's highest new entry. Debuted by the pair at Wireless Festival last month, Which One is by no means the first collaboration between Drake and Central Cee but it winds up as far and away the biggest, slamming in at No.4. That easily beat's the pair's previous recorded collision, the On The Radar Freestyle which reached No.26 exactly two years ago next week. This is perhaps curiously Drake's biggest UK hit single since First Person Shooter also made No.4 in 2023, and it is the first Top 5 hit for Cench since Band4Band gave him a No.3 hit single in June last year.
Also breaking into the Top 10 is No Broke Boys, the Disco Lines remix of Tinashe's 2024 album track now transformed into a club banger. After a seven week journey it advances 12-8 and hands the American singer a second Top 10 single almost a decade after her first. Her contribution to Snakehips' All My Friends helped it to No.5 in the first weeks of 2016.
Demons!
The headlines may be stolen by Huntr/x but their demon rivals also make chart moves of their own. Performing as The Saja Boys the real-life Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo and samUIL Lee find themselves up at No.10 with Your Idol and at No.11 with the recently surfaced Soda Pop. I remain convinced the way there are three of Huntr/x and five of Saja Boys is a subtle nod to the way there are seven of BTS and only four of Blackpink. Nothing in the movie is a coincidence.
The K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack remains No.1 on the compilations chart, albeit with a sale that would only see it ranked No.3 on the full albums listing were it to be eligible. No.1 there is Pretty On The Internet from The K's. It is the first No.1 record of any kind to reference the platform by which you are reading these words. The only chart single with "internet" in its title was Bo Burnham's Welcome To The Internet which made No.66 in June 2021.
Help Me With My Mind
A chart topped by the most modern of hit singles also plays host to more than its fair share of 'golden' oldies. As well as the three resurrected Oasis hits which are still floating around the Top 30, the posthumous celebration of the work of Ozzy Osbourne has surprisingly extended into a second week. It means Black Sabbath's Paranoid rises to No.20 while album cuts War Pigs and Iron Man now make the Top 75 for the first time ever, lining up at 47 and 48 respectively. Ozzy as a soloist is also eligible for three hits and makes the most of all of them. His 1980 single Crazy Train is now up to No.25, beating the No.49 it scaled when first released. It is now joined by Mama I'm Coming Home at No.45 (beating its 1991 No.46 peak) and No More Tears at No.46 (for now short of the No.32 it scaled, also in 1991).
You will note that this does mean the late rockstar occupies four consecutive chart rungs, yet he is but a small part of the overall trend. The Saja Boys as we've already mentioned are at 10 and 11, Oasis have songs at 22 and 23 (as well as one more at 25) and lower down Sombr has three hits at 31, 32 and 33. The biggest is another of the week's new entries, 12 To 12 becoming his fourth Top 40 hit of the year to date. The parade of doubling up also extends to Lola Young. As her second hit One Thing dips to No.35 it is leapfrogged by her third hit single d3aler which is a new entry at No.34.
The final new Top 40 single is, alas, another vintage track. Having surfaced virally a month back, Coldplay's 2000 cut Sparks edges its way up to No.39. Just don't get caught on camera listening to it.
