‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Singer Ejae ‘Made Mistakes’ During BAFTAs Performance After Seeing Leonardo DiCaprio: ‘He Was Not Smiling’ and ‘That’s What Put Me Off’

Leonardo DiCaprio could throw any of us off of our game — as EJAE can testify.

The “KPop Demon Hunters” vocalist spoke with the U.K. newspaper the Times and recounted her experience performing at this past year’s BAFTA Awards. “I made mistakes,” she said. “I cracked a little bit on the high notes. Leonardo DiCaprio was [in the audience] right in front of me and he was not smiling.”

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DiCaprio attended the London ceremony as an acting nominee for “One Battle After Another,” losing to “I Swear” star Robert Aramayo; EJAE was joined by the other two singing voices of Huntr/x, the fictional pop trio from Netflix’s smash animated film, in their first performance of “Golden” outside the United States. The BAFTAs don’t have a category for best original song, but no matter — “Golden” went on to take the Oscar, with EJAE taking home a trophy as one of its writers. 

But even as she was bound for awards-season glory, EJAE was new enough to the game to feel rattled by the star of “Titanic.” Before hitting the “born to be” note in the song, she saw DiCaprio in the audience. “That’s what put me off,” she said. “He made me so nervous. It was already so nerve-racking to be in front of all these celebrities, and then I look up and lock eyes with Leonardo DiCaprio? Come on.” 

Awards season brought EJAE a happier encounter, too, when she met her favorite vocalist, Beyoncé, along with Jay-Z. “I was at their afterparty and Jay-Z came up to me and said, ‘Hi, my name’s Shawn,’” she said. “I was beyond starstruck. Beyoncé is my idol and she said, ‘You have an incredible voice.’” She added, I asked her, ‘Do you know ‘Golden?’ She was like, ‘Yeah, my girls sing it.’”

“Golden” became the first K-pop song to win a Grammy as well as the first to win an Oscar. EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami performed the song throughout awards season and will have to work hard to one-up themselves — a sequel to “KPop Demon Hunters” is in development.