diff --git a/backend/lib/ytdlp.js b/backend/lib/ytdlp.js
index 50b817a..ed3894d 100644
--- a/backend/lib/ytdlp.js
+++ b/backend/lib/ytdlp.js
@@ -64,8 +64,10 @@ async function downloadTrack({ jobId, artist, albumArtist, title, album, year, t
   }
 
   const outputTemplate = path.join(dir, `${trackPrefix}${safeTitle}.%(ext)s`);
-  const searchArtist = mainArtist.replace(/[^\p{L}\p{N}\s,&\-]/gu, '').trim();
-  const query = `${searchArtist} - ${title}`;
+  // Use original artist name (with special chars) for all searches — stripping e.g. "N!GHT" → "NGHT"
+  // causes ytsearch to match "night" ambience videos instead of the artist.
+  // spawn() passes args directly without shell interpretation so special chars are safe.
+  const query = `${mainArtist} - ${title}`;
 
   const baseArgs = [
     '--extract-audio',