K-pop
HUNTR/X-KATSEYE Coachella team-up was pure 'girl power' energy
Rei Ami says HUNTR/X’s surprise Coachella link‑up with KATSEYE was a “beautiful meeting of girl power” after their viral performance lit up the festival.
Rei Ami says HUNTR/X and KATSEYE's Coachella team-up was a "beautiful meeting of girl power".
Rei Ami, one of the voices behind the KPop Demon Hunters group says the viral Coachella team‑up between HUNTR/X and K‑pop‑inspired act KATSEYE felt like a full‑blown explosion of “girl power”, after the surprise moment lit up the festival and spread worldwide online.
Speaking on the red carpet at Billboard Women in Music 2026 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Wednesday (29.04.26), the HUNTR/X star reflected on the scale of the performance, which saw them join forces for a high-energy rendition of Oscar-winning single Golden.
She said: “It was an iconic performance, I've never seen 90,000 people in one gathering and I think it was an honour to have KATSEYE invite us and share the stage. They're also an incredible, powerful, bad ass girl group. They work really hard. They show up all the time. And so I felt like, you know, it just made sense. And it was just a beautiful meeting of girl power.”
The Coachella set — also featuring EJAE and Audrey Nuna alongside KATSEYE — quickly became one of the most shared festival moments of the year, with fans calling it a “dream girl group moment”.
Clips of the performance spread rapidly across social media, with viewers praising the chemistry, energy and surprise nature of the collaboration.
Looking ahead, Rei Ami hinted the group are already focused on their next milestone.
With HUNTR/X aiming for “another number one.”
Golden has continued its global success and was recently crowned Best Original Song at this year’s Oscars.
Another standout moment at Coachella came from BLACKPINK’s Lisa, who teamed up with electronic producer DJ Argy on Bad Angel, further underlining K-pop’s ongoing expansion into global electronic and festival spaces.
Lisa of BLACKPINK represents a major, strategic shift in K-pop's evolution, moving away from the traditional, rigid idol model toward becoming a global pop icon with full artistic independence.
Her 2024-2025 solo activities, marked by the release of her album Alter Ego and her management company LLOUD, signify a transition from a K-pop-focused career to a Western-focused, diversified brand, featuring high-profile collaborations with international artists like Rosalía and Doja Cat.
K-pop is no longer just a genre but an export model shaping how global pop is built, packaged and performed.
The industry’s emphasis on highly engineered concepts, cross-platform storytelling and tightly choreographed group identities has increasingly influenced Western pop structures, particularly in how fanbases are activated and how releases are designed to live across music, film, social media and live performance simultaneously.
