The 2023 Melon Music Awards ceremony was held on Dec. 2 at Inspire Arena in Yeongjong Island in Incheon, South Korea.
Girl group NewJeans bagged two grand prizes (“daesang”), the highest honors of the night, winning Artist of the Year” and Song of the Year for “Ditto.” They also won Top 10 Artist, Millions Top 10 Artist and Best Female Group.
Grand prize winners (from top) NCT Dream, NewJeans and IVE (Photo from X)
IVE grabbed the Album of the Year for “I’ve IVE” while NCT Dream won Record of the Year, awarded to the artist and producer who have garnered the most notable music achievements this year.
NCT Dream also won Top 10 Artist, Millions Top 10 Artist and Best Male Group.
'Album of the Year' was awarded to Ive for his first full-length album 'I've IVE', released in April this year. Ive's 'I've IVE' was ranked in Melon's 'Millions Album', and the title songs 'I AM' and 'Kitsch' were ranked at the top of the TOP 100 in succession, showing syndrome-like popularity.
Rookie of the Year winner ZeroBaseOne (X)
Rookie of the Year winner Riize (X)
Here are the winners at the 2023 Melon Music Awards:
Main Awards
Artist of the Year: NewJeans
Album of the Year: IVE - I've IVE
Record of the Year: NCT DREAM
Song of the Year: NewJeans, “Ditto”
Rookie of the Year: ZeroBaseOne, Riize
TOP 10 Artist: (G)I-DLE, Aespa, IVE, Le Sserafim, NCT Dream, NewJeans, BTS, Seventeen, Lim Young-woong, BTS’ Jungkook
Millions Top 10 Artist: (G)I-DLE, Aespa, IVE, Le Sserafim, NCT Dream, NewJeans, BSS, Seventeen, Lim Young-woong, BTS’ Jungkook
Best Awards
Best Male Solo Male: Jungkook
Best Female Solo: Lee Young-ji
Best Pop Artist: Charlie Puth
Best Male Group: NCT Dream
Best Female Group: NewJeans
Best Music Style: Silica Gel
Best OST: Lim Jae-hyun, “Heaven (2023)” for “First Kiss”
Best Producer: Han Seong-su
Special Awards
Stage of the Year: SHINee
Best Performance (Male): Seventeen
Best Performance (Female): Aespa
Global Artist: Aespa
Global Rising Artist: BoyNextDoor
J-Pop Favorite Artist: Imase
Music Video of the Year: STAYC, “Bubble”
1theK Global Icon: Kiss of Life
Songwriter Award: Ryan Jhun
Popularity Awards
Hot Trend Award: BTS’ Jungkook
Kakao Bank Favorite Star Award: BTS