Hallyu K-pop stars BigBang, IU and Park Jin-young snagged the Netizens’ Choice Awards in the 13th round of the Korean Music Awards, the awarding committee said on Monday. (Image : Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 2 (Yonhap) - Hallyu K-pop stars BigBang, IU and ParkJin-young snagged the Netizens’ Choice Awards in the 13th round of the Korean Music Awards, the awarding committee said on Monday.
This year’s KMA ceremony, held in Guro Arts Valley, western Seoul, recognized a total of 27 Korean solo and group acts.
In the netizens’ re-vote that ran Feb. 15-22, BigBang won the most votes with 5,321, by far outpacing IU’s 3,654 and Park Jin Young’s 1,425.
BigBang also won the best pop song award with album “Loser” and the best song of the year award with “Bae Bae.”
“BigBang will continue to make music that can reach out to the crowds,” said director Park Hyeon-pyo of YG Entertainment, who attended the ceremony on behalf of the boy band.
IU and Park Jin-young also didn’t show up at the event to receive theirawards.
The re-vote came after the organizer nullified the original vote, held Feb. 3-12, citing some voters’ attempts to manipulate the voting results by casting multiple votes under borrowed identities.’
The contribution award went to Kim Hee-gap, a South Korean songwriter who was a star in the 1980s. Kim composed a number of hits, including “The Cheetah of Mount Kilimanjaro” sung by Cho Yong-pil, “I Want to Know” by Lee Sun-hee and “Tatata” by Kim Guk-hwan.
KMA’s artist of the year award was presented to Deepflow for the album “Yanghwa.” The hip hop act also won the best rap and hip hop song award with “Jakdu,” after being nominated in five categories.
The album of the year award, one of the most prestigious awards of theKMA, was given to E SENS, the creator of the album “The Anecdote.”
Gukak drummer Park Je-chun was dubbed the musician of the year.
The best R&B song award was presented to Dean, whose song “Pour Up” was featured by Zico of the K-pop boy band Block B.
The best electronic dance song award was delivered to Flash Flood Darlings, who told his personal growth story in his album “Star.” The young male artist said the album helped him come out of the closet as a homosexual.
At the podium, Flash Flood Darlings urged that South Korean LGBTs, or lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, deserve equal human rights like the rest of non-LGBT people, eliciting a big round of applause.
Since 2004, the annual awards ceremony has recognized a number of singing talents in a wide variety of genres, from K-pop to heavy metal and folk songs.
The KMA ceremony was sponsored by KT&G and Bugs Music.
(Yonhap)
