# Melon Music Award for Song of the Year

The Melon Music Award for Song of the Year is one of the awards from the annual Melon Music Awards, an event that uses data from Melon's streaming service to celebrate artists who have had exceptional performance during the year. The Song of the Year category recognizes the top performing single in South Korea based on various metrics such as digital performance, voting, and judge evaluation.
From 2005 to 2008, awards for best song of the year were based entirely on online voting and were announced on Melon's website. Live ceremonies began in Seoul starting in 2009, with Song of the Year becoming one of the ceremonies' daesang (grand prize) awards. The award is determined through several criteria; as of 2021, 60% of the evaluation is based on figures for digital downloads and streaming, 20% from the evaluation of a panel of judges, and 20% from online voting.
The artist with the most Song of the Year awards is BTS, having won four times in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021 with "Spring Day", "Boy with Luv", "Dynamite" and "Butter", respectively. Wonder Girls received the award twice during its online period, with "Tell Me" and "So Hot" receiving the most votes in 2007 and 2008, respectively. IU has the most nominations in the category with seven nominations, winning once for "Good Day" in 2011.

## Winners and nominees

List of online award winners (2005–2008) :
| Year | Winner(s) | Song |
| 2005 | Epik High | "Fly" |
| 2006 | Baek Ji-young | "I Won't Love" |
| 2007 | Wonder Girls | "Tell Me" |
| 2008 | Wonder Girls | "So Hot" |
List of daesang award winners and nominees (2009–present) :
| Year | Winner(s) | Song | Nominees | Ref. |
| 2009 | Girls' Generation | "Gee" | See: 2009 Melon Music Awards § Winners and nominees | |
| 2010 | 2AM | "Can't Let You Go Even If I Die" | Girls' Generation – "Oh!" 2NE1 – "Go Away" Lee Seung-gi – "Love Taught Me To Drink" CNBLUE – "I'm a Loner" | [10] [11] |
| 2011 | IU | "Good Day" | 2NE1 – "I Am the Best" Beast – "On Rainy Days" GG (Park Myung-soo, G-Dragon) ft. Park Bom – "Having an Affair" T-ara – "Roly-Poly" | |
| 2012 | Psy | "Gangnam Style" | Busker Busker – "Cherry Blossom Ending" Sistar – "Alone" IU – "You & I" Trouble Maker – "Trouble Maker" | [13] [14] |
| 2013 | Exo | "Growl" | Busker Busker – "Love, At First" Beast – "Shadow" IU – "The Red Shoes" G-Dragon – "Who You?" | [15] [16] |
| 2014 | Taeyang | "Eyes, Nose, Lips" | IU – "Friday" ft. Jang Yi-jeong Soyou, Junggigo – "Some" Park Hyo-shin – "Wild Flower" San E, Raina – "A Midsummer Night's Honey" | [17] [18] |
| 2015 | Big Bang | "Bang Bang Bang" | Sistar – "Shake It" Apink – "Luv" Exo – "Call Me Baby" Toy – "Three of Us" | [19] [20] |
| 2016 | Twice | "Cheer Up" | Zico – "I Am You, You Are Me" Urban Zakapa – "I Don't Love You" GFriend – "Rough" MC the Max – "No Matter Where" | [21] [22] |
| 2017 | BTS | "Spring Day" | IU – "Through the Night" Exo – "Ko Ko Bop" Bolbbalgan4 – "Tell Me You Love Me" Ailee – "I Will Go to You Like the First Snow" | [23] [24] |
| 2018 | iKon | "Love Scenario" | Blackpink – "Ddu-Du Ddu-Du" Twice – "Heart Shaker" Mamamoo – "Starry Night" BTS – "Fake Love" | [25] [26] |
| 2019 | BTS | "Boy with Luv" (feat. Halsey) | Ben – "180 Degrees" Chungha – "Gotta Go" Jannabi – "For Lovers Who Hesitate" N.Flying – "Rooftop" | [27] [28] |
| 2020 | BTS | "Dynamite" | Blackpink – "How You Like That" Red Velvet – "Psycho" IU – "Eight" featuring Suga" Zico – "Any Song" | [29] [30] |
| 2021 | BTS | "Butter" | Aespa – "Next Level" IU – "Celebrity" Oh My Girl – "Dun Dun Dance" Lee Mu-jin – "Traffic Light" | |
| 2022 | Ive | "Love Dive" | (G)I-dle – "Tomboy" Kim Min-seok – "Drunken Confession" Psy – "That That" (featuring Suga) Big Bang – "Still Life" | |
| 2023 | NewJeans | "Ditto" | (G)I-dle – "Queencard" Aespa – "Spicy" BSS – "Fighting" Ive – "I Am" | |
| 2024 | Aespa | "Supernova" | (G)I-dle – "Fate" IU – "Love Wins All" Lee Chang-sub – "Heavenly Fate" TWS – "Plot Twist" | |

## Artists with multiple wins
### 4 wins

* BTS

### 2 wins

* Wonder Girls

## Artists with multiple nominations
### 8 nominations

* IU

### 5 nominations

* 2NE1
* BTS

### 3 nominations

* G-Dragon
* Exo
* Big Bang
* Aespa
* (G)I-dle