We kick off the year with the 25th Seoul Music Awards which were held at the Olympics Gymnastics Arena in Seoul Olympic Park on the 14th of January (shout out to EXO’s Kai who celebrated his birthday on this day). The awards were hosted by MC Jun Hyun Moo, actress Honey Lee (Tazza 2) and EXID‘s Hani. The unstoppable EXO took home the biggest award of the night, the Daesang (Grand Prize) for the third year running marking them as the first artists to win the award for more than two consecutive years. The group also won the most awards for the night, taking home a Bonsang Award as well the Hallyu Special Award. The event was not without it’s hiccups though with Song of the Year winners Big Bang absent from the event despite not having an actual group schedule for that night, another notable absence for the night was JYJ‘s Junsu whom won the Popularity Award (which was based solely on fan votes online) according to the producers they had decided not to present the award during the live show to save time for other “major” awards hence Junsu’s absence however the announcement was met with outrage by fans who accused organisers of not sending him an invite. Jun Hyun Moo who was one of the co-hosts for the night also came under some fire for his comments about his fellow co-hosts love lives. Singer Ailee also got in a bit of hot water when she was shown playing on her phone during SHINee‘s performance, the artist later took to social media to explain herself saying that she had been downloading an app that allowed her to show a message on her screen so that she could hold it up in support of SHINee, she was later seen using the app to support BoA and EXO during their performances.
The winners of the awards are selected based on singer who had released albums during the year (2015), combined with 20 percent mobile votes, 10 percent Sports Seoul’s popularity poll, 40 percent digital downloads and album sales, and 30 percent judges’ scores.
2016 Seoul Music Awards Winners List
Daesang (Artist of the Year) – EXO
Record of the Year in Digital Release (Song of the Year) – Big Bang – “Bang Bang Bang”
Record of the Year (Album of the Year) – BoA – “Kiss My Lips”
Newcomer Award – Seventeeen,. GFriend, iKON
OST Award – Jang Jae In
Ballad Award – BTOB
Trot Award – Hong Jin Young
R&B Award – San.E
Hallyu Special Award – EXO
Popularity Award – XIA
Dance Performance – Ailee, Monsta X
Performance Culture Award – Hyukoh
Bonsang (Main Award)
EXID
Red Velvet
Taeyeon
VIXX
Zion.T
Yoon Mirae
BTS
EXO
APink
Sistar
BigBang
SHINee
Red carpet wise it was…..interesting to say the least especially for the male groups, honestly what is with male groups and always dressing out there for red carpet events, what’s wrong with a normal suit and tie? EXO rocked up looking like they’d each raided their grandfathers closest’s with too short pants, turtlenecks and tweed jackets (yes I’m looking at YOU Kim Jongdae), rookie group Monsta X arrived with the theme of neapolitan ice cream in mind with a mix of baby pinks, tans and creams, YG rookie group iKon actually look alright minus the fur jacket one of the members is wearing and they all seem to have coordinated on the fashionably ribbed skinny jeans, both BTOB and BTS went with a collective group outfit of white suits and navy suits respectively BTOB also stood out with their amazing team posing forming a pyramid whilst member Sungjae holds up a cats cradle star. Moving on to the girls they mostly all looked amazing although the theme for the girls seemed to be black and white which you cannot go wrong with, SISTAR kept it interesting with a mix of eclectic outfits whilst Ailee went for a bright red dress paired with a black leather corset which when paired together is not her best look.
The biggest performance of the night would have to be MFBTY (Yoon Mirae, Tiger JK and Bizzy) who collaborated with BTS’s Rap Monster, EXO’s Chanyeol and Red Velvets Wendy to perform their songs “Angel”, “Buckubucku” and “Bang Diggy Bang Bang”.
Check out the nights performances below.
Source – Images and videos are as tagged
Time-Travelling Tofu 