Melon Music Awards

Melon Music Awards
The Melon Music Awards 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.
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.
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.
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
New Artist of the Year Award
Genre Awards
Best Rap/Hip Hop
Best Ballad
Best R&B
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 Solo
Best Group
Best Collaboration
Global Artist
Global Rising Artist
Kakao Hot Star Award
Stage of the Year
1theK Performance Award
1theK Original Contents
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
Best Music Style: Homies
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
Best Music Style: Big Naughty
Project Music Award: WSG Wannabe
1theK Global Icon: Enhypen
KakaoBank Everyone's Star: BTS
Discontinued 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 2010-2011 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.
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).
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
External links
(LOEN)
(MBC)
Kakao M
South Korean music awards
Awards established in 2009
Annual events in South Korea