Korean actor and “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” star Kim Seon-ho will not attend the 2021 Asia Artist Awards (AAA) ceremony set on Dec. 2 at the KBS Arena in Seoul.
The AAA held an online voting for the U+ IDOLLIVE Popularity Award and 2021 AAA RET Popularity Award, which ended last Nov. 15.
AAA “is the first-ever award which selects artists from both K-Pop and K-Drama and K-Movie for the year, based on their performance who excelled in Korea as well as in Asian region,” according to its website.
Kim Seon-ho emerged as the winner in the most popular actor category in the two polls. In the U+ IDOLLIVE Popularity Award, he won most popular actor with 542,972 Votes, or 40.5 percent of the total votes.
In the 2021 AAA RET Popularity Award, Kim Seon-ho won with 1,787,702 votes, or 44.3 percent of the total votes.
However, Kim Seon-ho will not be able to attend the AAA ceremony to receive his awards.
His closest aide told Korean media on Nov. 30, "Kim Sun-ho had been considering attending the awards until recently but decided not to attend because it was still too early."
Kim Seon-ho was swept up in controversy through an online post of her former girlfriend on Oct. 17, just hours before the 16th and final episode of “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” aired.
As a result, he suspended his activities. However, succeeding revelations contradicting the statements of his former girlfriend turned the public opinion in his favor.
Fans are hoping that Kim Seon-ho will attend the ceremony, which will be his first public event since the controversy. In last year’s AAA, Kim Seon-ho won the Best Emotive Award.
Kim Seon-ho will resume his activities when he attends the table-read, or script reading, of his debut film “Sad Tropics” on Dec. 3, or a day after the AAA ceremony. The filming will start on Dec. 10, which will last until February.
On the other hand, “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” has been watched 258 million hours on Netflix since it premiered on Aug. 28.