HUNTR/X, the heroic trio in Netflix’s phenomenal hit KPop Demon Hunters, could make Grammy history when the nominations are announced on Nov. 7. The act’s smash “Golden,” which is in its eighth week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, could become the first K-Pop hit to receive a record of the year nomination.

Moreover, HUNTR/X could become only the second animated act to land a nod in that marquee category. The first was The Chipmunks, which rated a record of the year nod at the inaugural Grammy Awards ceremony in 1959 for the Hot 100-topping “The Chipmunk Song.”

The Chipmunks’ nods went to their creator, Ross Bagdasarian Sr., who went by the stage name David Seville. In addition to its record of the year nod, “The Chipmunk Song” won in two categories – best recording for children and best comedy performance. Bagdasarian died of a heart attack in January 1972 at age 52.

While “The Chipmunk Song” was a novelty hit, “Golden” is squarely in the contemporary pop mainstream. In addition to record of the year, “Golden” is entered for song of the year, best pop duo/group performance, best song written for visual media and best music video. 

If “Golden” receives a record of the year nod, its chief historical significance will be as the first K-pop hit to register in that category. BTS is thought to have come close with “Dynamite,” “Butter” and “My Universe” (the latter, a collab with Coldplay). All three hits were nominated for best pop duo/group performance.

When “Golden” logged its fifth week atop the Hot 100, it became the longest-leading hit by an animated act in the chart’s 67-year history. Two previous cartoon groups each reigned for four weeks: The Archies, with “Sugar, Sugar” in the summer of 1969, and The Chipmunks with Seville, with “The Chipmunk Song” over the 1958 holiday season.

“Golden” is the ninth song in the realm of Korean pop to top the Hot 100; the first by female lead vocalists with ties to the genre. HUNTR/X singers EJAE and REI AMI were born in Seoul, South Korea; the trio’s third member, Audrey Nuna, is from New Jersey.

Carlos Vives, Emilia, Wisin and Xavi are set to premiere Telemundo’s official song for the FIFA World Cup 2026 at the upcoming Billboard Latin Music Awards, which will be presented live on Telemundo on Thursday, Oct. 23.

Titled “Somos Más,” the track’s lyrics will “deliver a powerful message of unity, pride and global connection through fútbol, inviting fans to wear their team colors, raise their voices and celebrate together,” according to a press release.

“Telemundo’s World Cup anthem is more than a song – it’s a celebration,” said Telemundo’s evp of primetime unscripted & specials Francisco Suarez in a statement. “By bringing together these artists from four vibrant Latin American countries, we’re showcasing the richness and diversity of Latino culture while delivering a powerful message of unity, peace, and joy.”

Telemundo will broadcast all 104 matches of next year’s World Cup live – 92 of them on Telemundo and 12 on Universo. Every match will stream live on Peacock and the Telemundo App.

“This anthem is a tribute to the global spirit of fútbol and the communities we serve,” said Joaquin Duro, evp of sports at Telemundo. “As the exclusive Spanish-language home of the World Cup, we are committed to delivering the most authentic and relevant coverage of this historic tournament. ‘Somos Más’ is one of many efforts that will elevate the fan experience and bring audiences even closer to the game.”

Vives, Emilia, Wisin and Xavi will also, for the first time, speak about the making of the song and the importance of the World Cup during a conversation at Billboard’s Latin Music Week on Oct. 22. The full programming schedule and ticket sales are available at the event’s website.

Spanning 30 years, Latin Music Week is the largest gathering of Latin artists and industry executives in the world. Latin Music Week also coincides with the 2025 Billboard Latin Music Awards, set to air Oct. 23, on Telemundo and Peacock.

Ronald McDonald DJing a Boiler Room set. SpongeBob flexing to phonk music while standing beside a sports car. Donkey Kong rapping about his bench presses. This is the weird new world of Sora 2, a generative video platform from OpenAI that doubles as a short-form social media app. Launched on Tuesday (Sept. 30) on an invite-only basis, this app is essentially TikTok — except everything is fake. And while it would be easy to dismiss it as just an “AI slop machine,” as many detractors have, it could also prove to be the future of social media — and a majorly disruptive force in the music industry.

It’s clear from just a few minutes on the app that Sora uses a lot of music to score its videos. What’s not clear is if Sora has struck any licensing agreements with the three major music companies or the galaxy of independent rights holders. (When asked if they had any licenses in place for music with OpenAI, Warner Music Group, Sony Music declined to comment. Universal Music Group and Recording Industry Association of America did not respond to request for comment. However, a source working at one of the majors admitted under the condition of anonymity that their particular company does not have a license with OpenAI). Often, the music featured on Sora is low quality and generic, used in the background and far from the main focus of the content. But it’s still present in many of the posts.

There are some limited safeguards on the app to keep users from generating videos with specific copyrighted songs in the background. For example, I tried making a video featuring a song by Ed Sheeran and received an automatic pop-up screen that read, “This content may violate our guardrails concerning third-party likeness,” and no video was generated. But Jules Terpak, a digital culture analyst and content creator, posted a Sora video to her Instagram story last week that featured her sitting on a park bench, listening to a garbled — but recognizable — version of Pop Smoke’s “What You Know Bout Love.” She didn’t ask for that song specifically, she says; instead, Terpak asked more generically for “rap music,” and that is what came up.

It’s confusing to know where Sora draws the line on intellectual property in general when it feels like half the videos on the app today feature recognizable characters from franchises like SpongeBob, South Park and Super Mario Bros. — and somehow a lot of videos featuring the superstore Costco — but users can’t prompt exact artist names or song titles. Maybe one could argue this is defensible, given that most of these videos were made as parodies, but it’s hard to argue that Terpak’s video constituted such.

To put rights holders — who likely complained to the AI company about its laissez-faire approach to protected material in the last few days — at ease, OpenAI CEO/founder Sam Altman wrote a blog post on Friday (Oct. 3), saying: “We have been learning quickly…and taking feedback from users, rights holders and other interested groups… [Now,] we will give rights holders more granular control over generation of characters, similar to the opt-in model for likeness but with additional controls.” (Previously, OpenAI had an opt-out policy for those who didn’t want their images or styles duplicated.) This is good news for the owners of SpongeBob, but it still doesn’t mention any updated approach to copyrighted music. (OpenAI did not respond to Billboard’s request for comment.)

It’s easy to see where the concerns lie for current artists and rights holders. For one thing, it seems likely that OpenAI has scraped copyrighted songs and recordings to train its model for Sora without consent or compensation — the same reason why the three major music companies are currently locked in a blockbuster lawsuit against Suno and Udio. It also deepens the threat of AI deepfakes for recognizable artists, jeopardizing their relationships with fans and their ability to control their own names, images and likenesses.

Sora could also spell the end of music’s TikTok era. The model of making a video and then selecting a pre-made, pre-licensed song from its catalog in the background could be overtaken by AI videos created with custom AI musical scores already built in. Sure, there may be a future where this all gets licensed, and Sora could get a TikTok-like library of songs for fans to use, but it’s likely that a considerable swath of users who want music will utilize custom AI tracks that fit more perfectly to the actions in their video; if the video is fake, after all, there’s no reason for the music to not be, too. The era of relying on short-form video to drive discovery and visibility for real songs by real artists is now under threat.

Who even wants this? It’s a good question. While many adults might find Sora silly and pointless, it’s important to look at the generation of kids growing up today. Gen Alpha has been raised on video games, many of which involve world-building and customization, and short-form video. Recent popular meme trends like Italian Brainrot (a popular trend that emerged in early 2025 that features surrealist images of AI-generated creatures with Italian names) also point to a generation that finds humor and value in the absurdity of AI slop. Who’s to say they won’t enjoy an app that lets them easily conjure up any crazy video they can think of?

Not only that, but OpenAI just closed a funding round that valued the company at $500 billion, and it made $4.3 billion in revenue in the first half of 2025 alone — already well more than its total revenue for the entirety of 2024. And its competitor, Meta, also launched “Vibes,” its own AI short-form social media app, last week. Clearly, whether people like it or not, this technology is going somewhere.

The one bright spot is that Sora amounts to a kind of test in what the internet could look like if generative AI had its own sectioned-off area of the internet — an idea that some music fans and industry professionals have suggested music streaming services could implement. But take one look at X or TikTok, and you’ll quickly find that these AI-generated videos are leaking out of Sora quickly, further confusing traditional social media with a slurry of AI and human-made content all in one.

As Sora continues to roll out, it signals a new age of digital marketing, copyright management and online safety in the music industry — one where there is more competition for listeners’ time than ever, more challenges to the value of intellectual property and blurrier lines between illusion and reality. It demands that the industry pays attention.