EXO, BlackPink, Twice win big at Gaon Awards

EXO took home four trophies at this year’s Gaon Chart K-Pop Awards in Seoul.

For the artist of the year award, the sixth annual ceremony divided the section into two parts: album and songs. The album category was awarded per quarter while the songs were awarded for each month.

EXO took home the award for the second and third quarter, becoming the only band to receive multiple awards in the category. The band also won the fans’ choice award both as a group and as an individual, with its member Sehun notching the award. 

The band has already snatched grand prizes at Golden Disc Awards and the 2016 Mnet Asian Music Awards for its third studio album “Ex’Act”

GOT7 and Bangtan Boys won the awards for the first and fourth quarters, respectively.

While boy bands dominated the album subcategory, it was the female artists who stood out in the song section.

Twice and BlackPink each took two artists of the awards, with the former winning the prize for April and October while the latter was awarded for August and November.

Others who won the award were GFriend (January), Mamamoo (February), Jang Bum-jun (March), Urban Zakapa (May), Sistar (June), now-disbanded Wonder Girls (July), Lim Chang-jung (September) and Big Bang (December).

The award for best new artists went to NCT 127 and BlackPink for album and song category.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)