IZNA faces criticism for lip-syncing during their cover performance of 'Golden' from KPop Demon Hunters

Rookie girl group izna is currently facing backlash for a recent performance.

On August 1, izna made an appearance at KCON in Los Angeles. Members Koko, Jeemin, and Jungeun gave a special performance of the song ‘Golden’ by HUNTR/X from the hit movie ‘KPop Demon Hunters.’

However, as clips from the performance started to gain traction across social media, netizens voiced criticism of the performance. The izna members were accused of lip-syncing during the performance, changing the lyrics, and also modifying the choreography to be easier.

250802 izna Jeemin, Koko & Jungeun covering 'Golden' by Huntr/x at KCON LA ⭐️#izna #이즈나 @izna_offcl pic.twitter.com/FZCrznxjKR

— iznavibe (@iznavibe) August 2, 2025

Netizens are now sharing their disappointment with izna’s cover performance of ‘Golden.’

"They should've at least chosen between either covering the actual song properly, or covering the dance properly. This is too much of neither"

"The song is good, but the lip syncing is a bit disappointing"

"It's a bit strange to cover a song but lip-sync it live on stage. It's a shame because vocals are really important in this song"

"I was wondering why the choreography didn't seem that familiar, then I realized that they even changed that.."

"The choreography doesn't really suit them"

"It's a shame that the lip-syncing is so obvious, but they still did a good job"

"I think they did well.."

"There are so many groups that actually do cover performances live ㅠ"

"I think it would've been so amazing if they had sung it live"

"It's basically just dancing to a vocal-focused track"

"Still, I think it would've been really difficult to sing a song that requires such strong vocals AND do such hard choreography with it"

"It's a cool concept, Americans must have really liked this"

"There are a lot of groups at KCON that lip-sync other groups' songs, but it seems izna is only getting judged for it because they chose to do a cover of 'Golden' ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ"

"The lip-syncing is such a shame"

"But if you look at the performance as a whole, it's still good"

"No, but if you're going to do 'Golden'... there were probably lots of groups that really wanted to cover that, but then here they didn't even do it live.."

"They must have had a hard time preparing this"

"It's kind of funny to do a dance cover of a song that's designed to showcase vocal skill ㅋㅋ Oh well, fans will like whatever they do anyways"

"It seems like no one can perfectly sing that song while dancing. You have to just stand still to sing 'Golden.' If you try to sing that live while dancing, you'll die. There's no way around it"