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32nd Seoul Music Awards Winners List: From BTS winning most awards to NCT DREAM's Daesang
With KARA being honoured with the K-pop special award and BTS winning Best Album, here is everything you need to know about the 32nd Seoul Music Awards.
The 32nd Seoul Music Awards took place on January 19, 2023, at the KSPO Dome. Kim Il Joong, SHINee’s Minho, and Lovelyz’s Mijoo were the MCs at the ceremony. Various K-pop stars took to the red carpet prior to the awards ceremony, including NCT Dream, KARA, (G)I-DLE, IVE, TAN, TNX, Lapillus, and more.
This award ceremony is held annually to recognize the outstanding achievements within the Korean music industry. The winners are decided by the albums and songs that are released from January to December 2022 with the criteria of thirty per cent sales, forty per cent panellists, and thirty per cent online voting. However, the Hallyu Special Award and Popularity Award are completely chosen based on online voting. On the other hand, Discovery of the Year, Special Jury Award, Band Award, and Best Performance are a hundred per cent determined by the panellist's input.
BTS won the highest number of awards that included the Best Album Award, Bongsang Award, and Idol Plus Best Artist award at the 32nd Seoul Music Awards, while KARA was awarded the K-pop special award for their first full group comeback in seven years. NCT DREAM took home a Daesang while IVE won the Best Song Award. Several artists scored two awards each, including Lim Young Woong, PSY, and (G)I-DLE.
32nd Seoul Music Awards full winners list
Daesang (Grand Prize) – NCT DREAM
Best Album Award – BTS for ‘Proof’
Song of the Year – IVE for ‘Love Dive’
Bongsong (Main Award) – BTS, (G)I-DLE, PSY, IVE, GOT the Beat, aespa, Kang Daniel, Kim Ho Joong, BLACKPINK, Red Velvet, Stray Kids, Zico, SEVENTEEN, Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon, Lim Young Woong
World Best Artist Award – PSY
Best Performance Award – (G)I-DLE
OST Award – MeloMance for ‘Love, Maybe’
Trot Award - Young Tak
Ballad Award - Younha
Band Award - Jannabi
R&B/Hip Hop Award - BE’O, BIG Naughty
K-pop Special Award - KARA
Discovery of the Year - Lee Seung Yoon
Popularity Award (Korea) - Lim Young Woong
New Wave Star Award - Kep1er, TAN, Lapillus
Idol Plus Best Artist Award - BTS
Idol Plus New Star Award - TEMPEST
Legend Artist Award – BoA
Hallyu Daesang – EXO’s Suho
Rookie of the Year – LE SSERAFIM, TNX, NewJeans
Netizens accuse 2023 Seoul Music Awards of using BTS’ Jin for clout
While ARMY was happy that BTS had won the Bongsang Award at the 2023 Seoul Music Awards, many fans were quite angry as BTS’ Jin and his single track ‘The Astronaut’ did not get any award. The single track released by Jin gained attention and praise at a global level. It was predicted that ten awards would be given for this category and Jin would definitely win one of them. However, even when the event gave out 14 awards and Jin didn’t win any, ARMY was not happy. Fans also accused the event of using Jin’s picture as clout and for advertising.
After the award ceremony, #SMA_RIGGED started trending on Twitter with netizens expressing their anger over the results. Graphs were shared showing that Jin along with several other artists such as TREASURE, and TXT were also deserving of the Bongsong award. One user tweeted that the Seoul Music Awards should be clearer about the criteria that they follow as the results were quite disappointing.
NCT DREAM’s interview after the ceremony suggests that they were aware of winning Daesang
After NCT DREAM won the Daesang at the 2023 Seoul Music Awards, Sports Seoul published an exclusive interview with the K-pop group which suggests that the group knew about receiving this award well in advance of the ceremony. Jeno, one of the NCT DREAM’s members mentioned that since this was the group’s first Daesang of 2023 they wanted the participation of all the members in the performance. This is why members Haechan and Mark’s appearance was done through VCR recording. The article was later edited to replace the first Daesang of 2023 with the first award show of 2023 but the damage was already done as published copies were also widely discussed.
Netizens criticize event for opening ‘fan club seats’ for artists of SM Entertainment only
Earlier, the event emphasized that audience tickets will be distributed randomly to attendees with no designated fan area. However, a couple of days before the ceremony, the fandoms of NCT DREAM, GOT the Beat, and SHINee’s Minho received the notice that there are designated fan sections for these artists which are available for reservation. People are claiming that the Seoul Music Awards is giving preferential treatment to the fans and artists of SM Entertainment. No statement has been released from the company’s side or from the awards’ end so far.
