We’re goin’ up, up, up: KPop Demon Hunters’ soundtrack hits No. 1 on US Billboard 200 album chart
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(From left) Audrey Nuna, Ejae and Rei Ami provide the singing voices for fictional girl group Huntrix in the film KPop Demon Hunters.
PHOTO: AFP
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The soundtrack to the hit Netflix animated film KPop Demon Hunters (2025) has reached the top spot on the United States’ Billboard 200 album chart for the first time.
Billboard, quoting from tracking service Luminate, said the soundtrack achieved this feat after earning 128,000 equivalent album units in the US in the week ending on Sept 11. The milestone came after the album was in second place on the chart for seven non-consecutive weeks.
Billboard said it was the longest wait in almost 50 years for an album in the runner-up spot to ascend to the top. The previous record was held by American singer Linda Ronstadt’s studio album Simple Dreams (1977), which was second for nine weeks before hitting No. 1.
KPop Demon Hunters is also the first No. 1 soundtrack on the Billboard 200 in 3½ years, after the companion album of Hollywood animated film Encanto (2021), which spent nine non-consecutive weeks at the top between January and March 2022.
KPop Demon Hunters’ latest triumph was preceded by four top 10-charting hits on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart – Golden, Soda Pop, Your Idol and How It’s Done.
That figure is the most from a soundtrack in almost 30 years, after the soundtrack to American romantic comedy Waiting To Exhale (1995) hit a record five between 1995 and 1996.
Golden is sitting atop the Billboard Hot 100 for the fifth week and is performed in the movie by fictional K-pop girl group Huntrix. Korean-American singers Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami provide the three members’ singing voices.
