At this point, award-show viewers are pretty used to seeing people’s acceptance speeches get cut for time. But at the Oscars on Sunday (March 15), the songwriters behind KPop Demon Hunters hit “Golden” were interrupted so abruptly during their historic win, the ceremony was widely criticized for making the production call, which Walt Disney Television executive vp Rob Mills has now addressed.
In an interview with Variety published one day after Hollywood’s biggest night, Mills — one of the producers for the Oscars — said that the harsh cutoff during the best original song presentation has inspired his team to rethink their approach for next year. “One thing, as we post mortem for next year, will be to look at how we’re handling speeches,” he began.
“You win the Oscar, you know you go on stage, it could be one person, it could be five or six,” Mills continued. “Immediately you’ll see the sort of allotted time we have for them. Do we need to look at it and say, ‘OK, designate one person to speak.’ Maybe you continue it backstage, and we have a feed on social or something like that. We look at everything and figure out what is the most elegant solution, because it is difficult, especially when you’re cutting somebody off, and it’s their one moment.”
He added, “I don’t know what the most elegant solution is, but it’s obviously something we should look really, really long and hard at.”
At Sunday’s ceremony, “Golden” beat out nominated songs from Sinners, Viva Verdi!, Train Dreams and Diane Warren: Relentless. After the Billboard Hot 100-topping smash’s writers accepted their trophy, only EJAE — who also provided the singing vocals for KPop Demon Hunters character Rumi — got the chance to deliver her remarks in full.
“Thank you so much to the academy for this insane award,” she said. “Growing up, people made fun of me for liking K-pop, but now everyone’s singing our song and all the Korean lyrics. I’m so proud. And I realized, the song, this award is not about success. It’s about resilience.”
Then, when cowriter Yu-Han Lee stepped up to say his thanks, he got through a few words before the Oscars’ live orchestra started playing over him. EJAE and the other songwriters were visibly upset and appeared to try to wave at the production team to stop, but they were ushered backstage, where they did eventually get to finish their speeches.
Nevertheless, KPop Demon Hunters‘ win marks a historic moment all around. “Golden” is now the first K-pop song to win an Oscar, adding to the long list of accolades the smash Netflix film has notched since its premiere last summer.
Another historic award the film will soon take home is Billboard‘s Woman of the Year, which, for the first time ever, will be presented as Women of the Year. EJAE and her fellow HUNTR/X vocalists, AUDREY NUNA and REI AMI, will share the coveted prize following the Billboard Women in Music Awards in April.
