The 36th Golden Disc Awards took place on January 8 at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. SM Entertainment's girl group, aespa, won four trophies including Artist of the Year.
In previous years, the Golden Disc Awards lasted for two days, divided by Album and Digital Song divisions. This year, the entire ceremony was held on one day to comply with social distancing regulations. No audience was present and the show was pre-recorded.
For the fifth year in a row, BTS (Bangtan Boys) won Album of the Year (Disc Daesang), while IU won Digital Song of the Year (Digital Daesang) for the second year in a row.
On the other hand, aespa made its fans proud by receiving four awards, namely the Digital Song Division Bonsang, Cosmopolitan Artist Award, Best Rookie Artist and Artist of the Year.
Unfortunately Winter could not participate in receiving the four awards. According to Karina, Winter is not feeling well so their formation is not complete today. But he told fans not to worry because the owner of the name Kim Minjeong will get better soon.
Despite Winter's absence, fans rejoiced at aespa's proud achievement. Even though they only debuted at the end of 2020, aespa won the Artist of the Year award thanks to their series of hits such as "Black Mamba," "Next Level," to "Savage."
Unlike in other award events, the Artist of the Year category at the Golden Disc Awards is not a Daesang (Grand Prize). But Aespa is still flooded with many congratulations from fans and netizens.
"Wow aespa girls are amazing!" netizen comments. "aespa really deserve this award. They've worked hard!" added another netizen. "Congratulations aespa! This year should be even more successful!" concluded another.
Meanwhile, all nominations are songs and albums released between November 2020 and mid-November 2021. Nominations for the main categories are based on quantitative measures such as number of streams and album sales. (wk/chus)
