Pansori: The Ancient Korean Vocal Art That Stole the Show at the 2026 Academy Awards

A Korean Heritage Moment on the World's Biggest Stage

On March 15, 2026, the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood transformed into a Korean cultural showcase. As HUNTRIX members EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami took the 98th Academy Awards stage to perform "Golden" from the Oscar-winning animated hit K-pop Demon Hunters, the spectacle began not with a K-pop beat but with something far older: the haunting, throat-rattling vocals of Korean pansori. Performers in flowing hanbok acted out the film's "Hunter's Mantra" opening, written by EJAE, before the modern K-pop performance erupted. The fusion electrified social media worldwide and sent search traffic for "Korean pansori" through the roof.

KPop Demon Hunters had already won Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song earlier that night, but for many Korean viewers, the most emotional moment was watching pansori introduced to a billion-strong global audience. "It means so much," EJAE said of the broader recognition for Korean culture. So what is pansori, why does it matter, and where can fans see it in popular Korean dramas and films? Here is the complete guide.

What Is Korean Pansori?

Pansori (판소리) is a centuries-old Korean genre of musical storytelling performed by a single vocalist, called the sorikkun, accompanied by a single drummer, the gosu, who plays the barrel-shaped buk drum. The word itself is a compound: "pan" refers to a place where people gather, and "sori" means sound or song. A complete pansori work, known as a madang, can stretch up to eight hours and demands extraordinary stamina, breath control, and a distinctive husky, weathered vocal quality that singers cultivate through years of relentless training, often near waterfalls to strengthen the voice against the roar of water.

A pansori performance blends three core elements: chang (sung passages), aniri (spoken narrative), and neoreumsae (gestures and body movement). Audiences are not passive; they participate by shouting words of encouragement called chuimsae, building energy that propels the performer through the marathon piece. This dynamic between singer, drummer, and crowd is what makes pansori feel less like an opera and more like a deeply communal ritual.

The History of Pansori: From Folk Tradition to UNESCO Heritage

Pansori first emerged in the late 17th century in southwestern Korea, likely growing out of shamanistic ritual songs and folk performance traditions. Initially performed for commoners at marketplaces and village gatherings, it gained extraordinary popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries, eventually winning the patronage of Joseon Dynasty aristocrats and even royalty. By the late 1800s, pansori had become the most prestigious vocal art in Korea, attracting both lower-class audiences and the cultural elite.

Twelve traditional pansori works were once performed, but only five survive today: Chunhyangga (the love story of Chunhyang), Simcheongga (the tale of the devoted daughter Sim Cheong), Heungboga (the parable of two brothers), Sugungga (the rabbit and the turtle), and Jeokbyeokga (the Song of the Red Cliffs, drawn from the Chinese epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms). The themes range from love and filial piety to loyalty, humor, and Confucian moral teaching.

Japanese colonial occupation (1910–1945) and post-war Westernization nearly extinguished pansori. Recognizing the danger, the South Korean government designated pansori as National Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 5 in 1964, channeling state support into preservation. The global seal of recognition came on November 7, 2003, when UNESCO inscribed pansori on its list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, cementing its status as a treasure not just of Korea but of all humankind.

Modern pansori has split into two main stylistic schools: the vigorous, masculine Dongpyeonje from the eastern Jeolla region, and the ornate, sorrowful Seopyeonje from the west, which has come to be associated with the deep Korean emotional concept of han. Today, pansori artists are reviving the form through fusion projects, K-pop crossovers, and global tours, while a younger generation discovers it through dramas, films, and viral moments like the Oscars stage.

Why Pansori Mattered for the K-pop Demon Hunters "Golden" Performance

K-pop Demon Hunters is a Netflix animated film about Huntrix, a K-pop girl group that secretly hunts demons and protects human souls through the power of song. The narrative is steeped in Korean shamanic and folkloric imagery, which is exactly the cultural soil pansori grew from. Director Maggie Kang, who dedicated her Oscar to Korea and Korean communities worldwide, wove traditional sounds into the film's score and opening sequences, making the choice to lead with pansori at the Academy Awards a natural extension of the film itself.

For Korean audiences watching from home, the moment was a cultural exclamation point. Online community theqoo lit up with pride as viewers praised how seamlessly pansori, hanbok, and traditional Korean dance had been integrated into a globally telecast pop performance. It echoed something pansori has been doing for decades: refusing to fade quietly and instead finding new vessels for its ancient power.

Korean Dramas That Feature Pansori

If the Oscars performance sparked your curiosity, several K-dramas offer extended dives into pansori and the surrounding traditional performance world. These shows are essential viewing for anyone wanting to understand the art beyond a few seconds on a glamorous stage.

Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born (2024)

Yes, Kim Tae-ri's hit drama Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born is fundamentally a pansori drama, although with an important nuance. The 12-episode tvN series, adapted from the popular webtoon Jeongnyeonyi, stars Kim Tae-ri as Yoon Jeong-nyeon, a young pansori prodigy from Mokpo who arrives in 1950s post-war Seoul and joins the Maerang Gukgeuk Theater Company. The show's central art form is technically gukgeuk, the all-female traditional Korean theater that flourished in the 1950s and 60s, but gukgeuk is built directly on a foundation of pansori. As gukgeuk legend Cho Young-sook explained, gukgeuk is "deeply rooted in traditional musical performance, particularly pansori," combining theater, music, singing, and dance.

Kim Tae-ri reportedly studied gukgeuk and pansori intensively for the role, and the drama features extended pansori-style singing performances that have introduced millions of new viewers to the art. Jeongnyeon achieved a peak rating of 16.5 percent in Korea, won Best Drama at the 2024 Apan Star Awards, and is widely credited with sparking a new wave of pansori interest among younger Koreans and international audiences. So if you are asking whether Jeongnyeon is a pansori drama, the answer is an emphatic yes—pansori is the artistic bedrock of every performance scene.

Mr. Sunshine (2018)

Also starring Kim Tae-ri, this acclaimed tvN historical drama set in the late Joseon era weaves traditional Korean music, including pansori-influenced sequences, into its emotional fabric. While not a pansori-centric show, it gives viewers a strong feel for the soundscape of late nineteenth-century Korea.

Other Notable K-Dramas with Pansori Elements

• Bridal Mask (Gaksital) – Features traditional musical motifs amid its 1930s colonial-era setting.

• Tale of Nokdu – Set in the Joseon era with traditional performance elements.

• Moonlight Drawn by Clouds – Period drama incorporating traditional Korean music.

• The King's Affection – Features traditional court music and performance arts.

Korean Films That Feature Pansori

Korean cinema has a much deeper history of putting pansori at center stage. These films are essential for understanding the form.

Seopyeonje (서편제 1993)

Director Im Kwon-taek's Seopyeonje is the single most important pansori film ever made and the title most often cited in any conversation about Korean cinema's relationship with the art. Set in early 1960s rural Korea, it follows a wandering pansori master and his two adopted children as they struggle to keep the dying tradition alive against the tide of Western pop culture and Japanese musical imports. Seopyeonje was the first South Korean film to surpass one million viewers in Seoul and is widely credited with sparking a national pansori revival in the 1990s. It remains a devastating, beautiful meditation on han, sacrifice, and artistic obsession.

Chunhyang (춘향 2000)

Im Kwon-taek's follow-up adapts the most famous pansori work, Chunhyangga, into a feature film by interweaving an actual pansori performance with the dramatized love story. The film was selected in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first Korean film to receive that honor, and it remains one of the most ambitious attempts to translate a complete pansori narrative to the screen.

Beyond the Years (2007)

An informal sequel to Seopyeonje, also directed by Im Kwon-taek, this film returns to the pansori world for another meditation on loss, memory, and the price of devotion to a dying art form.

The Sound of a Flower / Dorihwaga (도리화가 2015)

Directed by Lee Jong-pil and starring Bae Suzy and Ryu Seung-ryong, this film is based on the true story of Jin Chae-seon, who in the late 1800s became the first known female pansori singer in defiance of laws that barred women from performing the art publicly. Suzy underwent extensive training for the role, and the film's emotional Chunhyangga sequences have introduced pansori to a younger audience. Available on Netflix in many regions, it is one of the most accessible entry points into the world of pansori.

The Treacherous (간신 2015)

Director Min Kyu-dong's lavish historical drama uses pansori narration as a structural device, framing the tale of a corrupt Joseon king through epic-theater style narration that draws directly on pansori tradition.

K-pop Demon Hunters (2025)

The Oscar-winning Netflix animated film blends pansori sounds with K-pop production in its score, particularly in the "Hunter's Mantra" sequence written by EJAE. The Academy Awards stage performance amplified the film's traditional Korean musical underpinnings, making KPop Demon Hunters arguably the most globally visible pansori moment in history.

How to Experience Pansori Today

If the Oscars performance lit a spark, there are several ways to go deeper. The National Theater of Korea in Seoul hosts regular pansori performances, and Namwon City in South Jeolla Province, considered the spiritual heartland of the art, holds an annual pansori festival. The National Gugak Center publishes free recordings online, the Korean Film Archive's YouTube channel offers Seopyeonje and other classics with English subtitles, and streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney+ carry The Sound of a Flower and Jeongnyeon respectively. Even a single afternoon of focused listening is enough to begin hearing why this music has survived for more than three centuries.

The Future of Pansori in a Global Era

The 2026 Oscars moment was not an isolated novelty. It was the culmination of decades of careful preservation, ambitious filmmaking, fearless drama production, and a new generation of artists determined to carry pansori onto stages it has never reached before. From Im Kwon-taek's Seopyeonje to Kim Tae-ri's Jeongnyeon to HUNTRIX's "Golden," pansori keeps proving that genuinely rooted art does not have to choose between tradition and global appeal. It can be both, and when those worlds collide on the right stage at the right moment, the whole world stops to listen.

As Korean culture continues its global ascent through K-pop, K-drama, K-cinema, and now Oscar-winning K-animation, pansori stands ready to remind audiences that the depth behind the sparkle is hundreds of years deep. The next generation of artists, from animation directors to drama showrunners to K-pop producers, is already weaving it into new forms. Pansori is not a relic. It is a living language of sound, and it just learned how to speak to the entire planet.