Rea

When Lee Jiae stepped onto the stage at the opening ceremony of the 2026 FIFA North American World Cup to perform "DNA," the official theme, she brought with her a line she had written herself in Korean: "Even if I fall again, I'll rise again." The moment drew global attention not only for the lyric's directness, but for what it represented — a South Korean artist, performing under the stage name Rea and known through the Netflix animated film *K-Pop Demon Hunters*, placing her own language at the center of one of sport's largest televised stages.

From Animation to the World Stage

Rea's public profile rose significantly through her association with the Netflix animated film *K-Pop Demon Hunters*, for which she sang the official theme song "DNA." The film brought her voice to a wide international streaming audience, but it was the awards recognition that followed which established her as a figure of broader cultural note. At the 98th Academy Awards, held in March 2026, she won the Best Original Song award for "DNA" — a result that placed her among a short list of Korean-language artists to receive formal recognition from the Academy.

Her appearance at the ceremony attracted its own attention. Rea wore a custom gown featuring a pure white base, a reference to the historical Korean descriptor "white-clad people," decorated with gilded bronze ornaments drawn directly from ancient Korean gold crown designs and finished with golden embroidery. The choice read as a deliberate statement about cultural representation on a high-visibility international platform, and it drew considerable comment in both Korean and international press.

The World Cup Performance

Three months after the Oscar ceremony, Rea returned to a global stage of a different kind. Her performance of "DNA" at the opening of the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America, alongside tenor Andrea Bocelli, gave the song a second major international moment. The Korean phrases she had contributed to the lyrics — and specifically the line about rising after falling — became a talking point in coverage of the ceremony, circulating widely in the days that followed.

Her choice of footwear at the ceremony also drew notice: she paired a hanbok-inspired dress with sneakers, a decision that was widely read as practical consideration for performing on turf, and was praised in coverage as a thoughtful gesture rather than an oversight.

Fly With Me

Beyond her solo work, Rea is a member of the group Fly With Me (플라이위드미). The material available does not detail the group's discography or activity timeline in depth, and further information on that chapter of her career remains outside the scope of current coverage.

Standing

Within a short window in 2026, Rea moved from the credits of an animated streaming film to the Academy Awards stage to the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup. What connects those appearances is a consistent thread: the deliberate presence of Korean language, aesthetics, and cultural reference in contexts that reach well beyond a domestic audience. Whether through a lyric she wrote herself or the iconography embroidered into a ceremony gown, her choices in that period contributed to a broader conversation about how Korean cultural identity travels on the world's largest platforms.