Melon Music Awards

South Korea Annual Music Award

The Melon Music Awards (Korean: 멜론 뮤직어워드) is a major music awards show that is held annually by Kakao Entertainment (a Kakao company) through its online music store Melon. The event was initially a fan-voted award conducted entirely online from 2005 through 2008, and has been officially held offline in Seoul since 2009.^[1]

The award show uses digital data from the Melon music platform—along with online voting and judges evaluation—to base its awards to artists who have had exceptional performance during the year.^[2]

History

The awards show underwent a logo rebranding starting with the 2019 edition. 2020 Melon Music Awards was held for 4 days from December 2 to 5, dubbed as "MMA Week", and was broadcast online due to government restrictions imposed because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.^[3]

Host venues

Judging criteria

Grand prizes

The four grand prizes (known as daesangs):

• Artist of the Year
• Album of the Year
• Song of the Year

Main prizes

Top 10 Artist Award

Millions Top 10 Artist Award

New Artist of the Year Award

Genre Awards

Best Rap/Hip Hop

Best Ballad

Best Rock

Best Trot

Best Pop

Best Dance

Best Folk/Blues

Best Indie

Best OST

Best Performance

Popularity awards

Netizen's Choice Award

Hot Trend Award

Special awards

Music Video Award

Song Writer Award

Best Performance Director

Best Music Style

Best Solo

Best Group

Best Collaboration

Global Rising Artist

Global Rising Artist

Kakao Hot Star Award

Stage of the Year

1theK Performance Award

1theK Original Contents

1theK Global Icon

Other awards

2009

• Star: TVXQ
• Mania: TVXQ - "Mirotic"
• Current Stream: Kim Tae-woo – "Love Rain"
• Smart Radio: Girls' Generation
• Odyssey: Girls' Generation – "Gee"
• Mobile Music: Girls' Generation
• Sudden Rise: Leessang
• Y-STAR Live: Lee Seung-chul

2010

• Best Dressed Singer: Girls' Generation
• Best MBC Radio Singer: Jung Yeop – "Without You"

2016

• Hall of Fame Award: Sechs Kies
• Tencent-QQ Music Asia Star Award: iKon

2020

• Best Drum: Shin Seok Cheol
• Best Bass: Choi Hoon
• Best Synthesizer: Hong So Jin
• Best Guitar: Juk Jae
• Best Chorus: Kim Hyun Ah

2021

• Project Music: MSG Wannabe M.O.M
• Best Session Instrumental Award: Kim Dong-min (Guitarist), Go Tae-yeong (Bassist), Gureum (Keyboardist)
• Legendary Performance: BTS – "IDOL"

2022

• Project Music Award: WSG Wannabe
• KakaoBank Everyone's Star: BTS

2023

• Kakao Favorite Star: BTS
• J-Pop Favorite Artist: imase

Discontinued awards

See Awards

Best Electronic

MBC Music Star Award

Performing Arts Award

Most wins

Most grand prizes awarded

This list includes Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year Award.

Most awarded overall

Broadcasting

South Korea

• The 1st Melon Music Awards ceremony was broadcast through CU Media's y-star, Dramax and Comedy TV channels. Internet partners include Melon, Nate (then a sister brand), GOMTV and Afreeca TV (2009-2010).
• In 2010, LOEN Entertainment partnered with MBC Plus Media, and the latter transmitted the awards night through MBC every1, MBC Dramanet (from 2010 to 2011 and 2013), MBC Game (now defunct) and MBC Life (now defunct). When MBC Music was launched in 2012, it shared the honor of being the flagship station of MMA with MBC every1. MBC QueeN joined in 2013.
• Daum was the local internet partner in 2013. One year later, it merged with LOEN's incumbent parent company Kakao.
• In 2018, the awards show was broadcast on JTBC2, JTBC4, 1theK, and KakaoTV as part of their partnership with JTBC Plus Media.^[23]

Worldwide

• Since 2011, Alphabet Inc.'s YouTube (specifically the 1theK (formerly LOEN Music) channel) is the internet broadcast partner of Melon Music Awards. Microsoft's Zune was the first internet broadcast partner (2009).

China

• Tencent, via its QQ Music and QQ Live services, owns the broadcast rights since 2016.

Japan

• The Sony Music Japan-owned Music On! TV acquired the local broadcast rights in 2015, making Melon Music Awards the second Korean music awarding event that it broadcasts (the first being Mnet Asian Music Awards).^[24]

Thailand

• Joox, another Tencent-owned music service, together with its sister property Sanook.com, brought Melon Music Awards to its users in Thailand in 2016 and 2017.

Taiwan

• Streaming rights is handled by Taiwan Mobile's MyMusic service.

References

1. Park, Gun-wook (December 17, 2009). "'제 1회 멜론 뮤직어워드', 성공가능성 쐈다". Asia's Economy (in Korean). Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
2. Lee, Jae-lim (October 21, 2021). "Melon Music Awards will be virtual again this year". Korea JoongAng Daily. Archived from the original on April 10, 2022. Retrieved May 21, 2022.
3. Son, Jin-ah (October 28, 2020). 멜론뮤직어워드, 12월 첫째주 온라인 개최…MMA WEEK 진행(공식) [(Official) Melon Music Awards, held online in the first week of December…Proceed with MMA Week]. Sports Maekyung (in Korean). Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020 – via Naver.
4. "음악사이트 멜론, 첫 디지털 음원 연말 시상식 개최!" [Music site Melon hosts the first digital music year-end awards ceremony!]. Sports Kyunghyang (in Korean). November 9, 2009. Archived from the original on October 22, 2022. Retrieved February 6, 2022 – via Naver.
5. "2010 Melon Music Awards". KBS World. December 16, 2010. Archived from the original on October 22, 2022. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
6. "Winners of 2011 Melon Music Awards". KBS World. November 24, 2011. Archived from the original on May 11, 2021. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
7. "'2012 멜론 뮤직 어워드', 12월14일 열린다" ['2012 Melon Music Awards' to be held on December 14]. Herald Pop (in Korean). November 15, 2012. Archived from the original on August 5, 2023. Retrieved February 6, 2022 – via Naver.
8. "Top 5 Moments from the Melon Awards 2013". SBS PopAsia. November 18, 2013. Archived from the original on August 5, 2023. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
9. "[사진]박은지-타쿠야,'우리가 멜론 뮤직 어워드 진행자'" [[Photo] Eunji Park and Takuya, 'We are the hosts of the Melon Music Awards']. Osen (in Korean). November 13, 2014. Archived from the original on October 25, 2022. Retrieved February 22, 2022 – via Naver.
10. "멜론, 국내 최대 음악축제 '2015 멜론 뮤직 어워드' 개최" [Melon hosts Korea's largest music festival '2015 Melon Music Awards']. Sports Seoul (in Korean). October 1, 2015. Archived from the original on August 5, 2023. Retrieved October 24, 2022 – via Naver.
11. "Melon Music Awards 2016 Introduction". Melon (in Korean). Archived from the original on November 19, 2016. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
12. "2017 멜론뮤직어워드, 12월2일 고척돔서 개최[공식]" [2017 Melon Music Awards, held at Gocheok Dome on December 2nd [Official]]. Sports Dong-a. September 14, 2017. Archived from the original on May 1, 2019 – via Naver.
13. "How BTOB's Changsub filled Eunkwang's vacancy at 2018 MMA". The Korea Herald. December 2, 2018. Archived from the original on October 24, 2022. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
14. "BTS set to heat up year-end festivities with performances at home, abroad". The Korea Herald. November 26, 2019. Archived from the original on August 5, 2023. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
15. "멜론뮤직어워드, 12월 첫째주 온라인 개최…MMA Week 진행(공식)" [Melon Music Awards will be held online in the first week of December … MMA Week in progress (official)]. MK Sports (in Korean). October 28, 2020. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020 – via Naver.
16. "Melon Music Awards will be virtual again this year". Korea JoongAng Daily. October 21, 2021. Archived from the original on April 10, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
17. "Melon Music Awards 2022 to be held on Nov. 26 at Gocheok Sky Dome". Korea JoongAng Daily. September 29, 2022. Archived from the original on November 21, 2022. Retrieved September 29, 2022.
18. "멜론뮤직어워드 12월 2일 인천 영종도서 개최" [Melon Music Awards held on December 2nd at Yeongjong Island, Incheon]. Yonhap News Agency (in Korean). October 19, 2023. Retrieved October 19, 2023 – via Naver.
19. "2015 Melon Music Awards Awards categories TOP10". Melon. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
20. "Melon Music Awards". www.melon.com. Archived from the original on November 13, 2017. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
21. Jeong, G. (November 19, 2016). "The Winners Of The 2016 Melon Music Awards". Soompi. Archived from the original on December 23, 2016. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
22. But Sometimes
23. [단독] 트와이스, 올해 멜론뮤직어워드서 못본다 (in Korean). Archived from the original on October 31, 2018. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
24. "完全生中継！2016 MelOn MUSIC AWARDS (Complete and Live Broadcast! 2016 Melon Music Awards)". LOEN Entertainment, Inc. and M-ON Entertainment, Inc. Archived from the original on October 30, 2016. Retrieved November 21, 2016.

External links

• Official website (in Korean) (LOEN)
• Official website (in Korean) (MBC)
• Melon Music Awards' channel on YouTube