The main ceremony of the 2020 Melon Music Awards (MMA) was aired on Dec. 5 to honor outstanding singers.
K-pop idol group BTS swept the daesang, or grand prize, in three categories. They took home Artist of the Year, Album of the Year for “Map of the Soul: 7” and Song of the Year for “Dynamite” based on the following criteria: digital sales, 60 percent; judges’ score, 20 percent and online votes, 20 percent.
For Artist of the Year, BTS produced “triple crown” as this is the third time that they won the award following their triumph in 2019 and 2018.
It was the fourth time for BTS to bag the Album of the Year. They first won the award in 2016 through “The Most Beautiful Moment in Life: Young Forever” followed by “Love Yourself: Tear” in 2018, “Map of the Soul: Persona” in 2019 and “Map of the Soul: 7” this year.
BTS also completed a “triple crown” in Song of the Year. They first won it in 2017 with “Spring Day” followed by “Boy With Luv” in 2019 and “Dynamite” this year.
In addition, BTS won Top 10 (bonsang), Best Dance (Male) for “Dynamite” and Netizen Popularity Award.
The Top 10 Artists, or bonsang awardees, are BLACKPINK, BTS, Baek Ye-rin, EXO’s Baekhyun, IU, IZ*ONE, Oh My Girl, Zico and trot singers Kim Ho-joong and Lim Young-woong. The winners were based on digital sales, 80 percent and online votes, 20 percent.
The Best New Artist, or Rookie of the Year, went to Cravity in the male category and Weekly in the female category. This sparked protests from fans of boy band Treasure who insisted that the group should have won the award. The hashtag #MMA_RIGGED_TREASURE trended on Twitter because of this. The winners were chosen based on digital sales, 60 percent; judges’ score, 20 percent and online votes, 20 percent.
Other winners in the 2020 MMA are:
Best Dance (Female) - BLACKPINK, “How You Like That”
Best Rock - IU, "Eight" featuring BTS’ Suga
Best Original Soundtrack (OST) - “Aloha,” Jo Jung-suk
Best R&B/Soul - Baek Ye-rin, “Square (2017)”
Best Ballad = Davichi, “Dear.”
Best Rap/Hip-Hop -Yumdda, The Quiett, Deepflow, Paloalto, Simon Dominic, "I'mma Do"
Best Trot - Lim Young-woong, “Trust in Me”
Best Pop - Sam Smith
Best Indie - Bolbbalgan4, “Leo (feat. Baekhyun)”
Hot Trend - Trot Men 6 (Lim Young-woong, Youngtak, Lee Chan-won, Jung Dong-won, Jang Min-ho and Kim Hee-jae)
Best Performance - Monsta X
1TheK Original Content - The Boyz
Best Performance Director- Son Sung-deuk
Best Songwriter- Young Tak
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