Singer-songwriter EJAE is stepping out from behind the scenes and into her own spotlight — but make no mistake, this isn’t K-pop.
Best known to global audiences as the singing voice of Rumi in KPop Demon Hunters, EJAE’s latest release, In Another World, marks a strikingly personal turn. The new single — accompanied by a cinematic music video — introduces EJAE not as a pop idol, but as a storyteller, one whose songwriting carries understated power and emotional depth.
The artist’s pen has already shaped some of K-pop’s biggest hits (including Red Velvet’s Psycho), but this time, the voice and the vision are fully her own. “I’ve always been a songwriter, and that was always the first thing,” she shares. “I guess the only difference between a songwriter and artist, for me at least, is that I’m having people hear all my demos. But now, it’s not a demo; it’s the final form.”
Songwriting as Self-Revelation
Co-written with Ted Andreville and Breagh Isabel, and produced alongside Vitals and Daniel Rojas, In Another World feels unhurried, cinematic — an indie-pop introduction to an artist who values sincerity over spectacle. EJAE’s delicate vocal tone glides over reflective lyrics that speak to longing, closure, and the alternate versions of ourselves that could have been.
“I wrote this two years ago during a songwriting camp in Canada,” EJAE recalls. “ It very much feels like a “Sliding Doors” situation because that’s something we all do — where we wonder, “What if?” The lyrics helped me accept reality in a way, but at the same time, be OK with it by knowing to just be real with yourself.”
The track’s universal appeal lies in its intimacy. It’s not a K-pop confession or a glossy concept — it’s vulnerability, distilled into melody.
The accompanying video plays like a dialogue between past and present, weaving together childhood footage and adult reflection. EJAE sits at the piano — both as a girl and as the artist she’s become — bridging two worlds in search of peace.
“It was initially about the relationship,” she says, but it evolved into this thing where, as a kid, in another world, I chose a different path. I had different paths I could have taken.”
Beyond Labels
While KPop Demon Hunters opened an unexpected window into EJAE’s voice, her solo work dismantles easy genre assumptions. “As an artist, I don’t want myself to be boxed into being a “K-pop” artist because I don’t really view myself as a K-pop artist or a pop artist. I view myself as a songwriter of every genre,” she asserts.
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And that’s the resonance she’s chasing — not the glimmer of a pop hit, but the quiet connection that lingers after the last note fades.
