Billboard just released its list of The Best 100 Songs of 2025, picked by their staff out of the year’s biggest hits as well as some deeper cuts. The magazine pointed out that there seemed to be fewer mega hits, calling 2025 “a year that often felt like flipping TV channels to find a new episode to watch and coming across nothing but reruns.”
However, one song dominated the charts, reaching number one on Billboard’s list: “Golden” from the Netflix animated hit “KPop Demon Hunters.”
The song is performed by the animated group HUNTR/X, who are voiced by real-life K-Pop star EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and REI AMI. Those may not be household names, but “Golden” nevertheless beat out artists like Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter, and more. Billboard laid out the odds for the song.
“An animated musical with no big-name voice actors, based around a genre with passionate but extremely protective fans, whose stars — even some of the very biggest ones — have found difficulty crossing over to the most mainstream American spaces? There were a million ways that could go wrong, and only one way that it really could go right: The songs were gonna have to be very, very, very good,” they wrote.
And very, very good it is. “Golden” succeeds because of its carefully engineered harmony, rhythm, and production.
Written in G major, the song sets up the IV-I-V-vi chord progression during the intro with a synthesizer pad. The vocals enter on the verse with a driving four-on-the-floor kick drum pattern, creating a dance vibe while a bass synth plays root notes in a triplet pattern, adding a swirling feeling to the rhythm. Billboard explains the “propulsive drums and glistening synths make the entire thing feel like an Olympic awards ceremony.”
The pre-chorus drops the beat as the vocal line switches to a high falsetto. The chorus itself spells out part of what makes the melody so incredible. EJAE sings “We’re goin’ up, up up” as the melody reaches a new peak. This is part of its masterful design.
“I wanted the melody to reflect both Rumi’s vocal prowess and her fierce determination to seal the magical barrier of Honmoon,” EJAE told Korea JoongAng Daily. “So, I intentionally wrote a challenging vocal line. Through this song, I discovered new territory in my own voice. I just followed where the melody took me, and suddenly I was hitting an A5 note, which is comparable to the upper falsetto range for male vocalists. It was a tough challenge, but one that helped me grow as both a composer and a singer.”
The vocal feat became a challenge on social media platforms like TikTok, which helped the song spread even further. It’s clear that whether you’ve seen “KPop Demon Hunters” or not, the song has a broad appeal.
“The song is so glorious, and its ascent has taken it so high up, that it’s largely broken free of the movie’s orbit: Now it’s just the best, most exciting pop song of 2025, enjoying its moment all on its own,” Billboard concludes.
Relive the magic of “Golden” and play along with the sheet music:
