BTS wins 6 trophies without attendance at Hanteo awards

Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Hanteo Chart, the Hanteo Music Awards 2022 took place in person for the first time this year.

The awarding ceremony happened over two days at the Jamsil Arena in Seoul, on Friday and Saturday, with the winners of the grand prizes, or "Daesang" in Korean, announced on the second night.

BTS was the biggest winner of this year's awards, taking home six trophies in total, including two grand prizes, the best artist prize and the best song prize.

On top of the grand prizes, the seven-member band also won three other prizes, including the "Bonsang" or artist of the year main award, a global artist award and the fan-voted WhosFan award, the last of which they shared the honor with Army, their global fandom.

Jin of BTS also took a trophy for himself with the global artist award, rounding up the band's total number of prizes to six.

The seven-member band has been off from group activities since last summer and did not attend the ceremony.

The next big winners of Hanteo awards were NCT Dream and Stray Kids. The two groups each bagged a grand prize -- the best album award by NCT Dream and the best performance award by Stray Kids -- as well as the artist of the year award for each.

Present at the ceremony on Saturday, NCT Dream members delivered a speech on stage as the received the best album prize.

"We're now in our eighth year and we still have so much we aspire to accomplish. We'll strive to learn more and work hard to become a better team and singers who can achieve even more," Mark, the band's leader, said.

Addressing their fans, NCTzens, Haechan added, "NCT Dream is packed with the hungry mindset. We still have far to go and we ask you to be with us on our journey. We won't give up as long as we have you guys, so please root for our future."

Continuing a sensational career in Japan, Stray Kids added the global artist in Japan award to their trophy list. The band did not attend the ceremony in person and delivered their speech through a pre-taped video played on Saturday.

Sharing the honor as the winners of the main prize -- the artist of the year -- were K-pop acts Kang Daniel, Blackpink, Seventeen, StayC, aespa, NCT 127, Ive, (G)I-dle, Enhypen and Tomorrow X Together, as well as trot singers Kim Ho-joong, Young Tak and Lim Young-woong.

The rookie of the year award went to four groups -- NewJeans and Kep1er among the female groups, and TNX and Tempest among the male groups.

The global artist award was divided into regions. The general global artist went to BTS, with the act's Jin being named for the global artist in Africa, Stray Kids in Japan, Tomorrow X Together in Asia, The Boys in Europe, Monsta X in Oceania, Blackpink in South America, Dream Catcher in the North America and SF9 in China.

The global rising artist award was divided into two regions -- China and Japan -- and boy band Tempest bagged both prizes. Tempest was honored with three trophies in total that night. Tempest is a seven-piece boy band that debuted in March last year under Yue Hua Entertainment.

The emerging artist award, whose winner was selected among acts with less than 1,000 days into debut, went to rookie K-pop groups Billlie, WEi, Epex and P1Harmony.

Other winners of the Hanteo Music Awards 2023 included Red Velvet, Everglow, Yuju, Verivery, Tan, Blitzers, Blank2y, Just B, Tribe, Cignature, Choi Yena, CIX, fromis_9, Be'O, Jung Dong-won, Younha, Lee Seok-hoon and the band Lucy.

Saturday night closed with NCT Dream's performance of its songs "Beatbox," "Glitch Mode" and "Candy."

Organized by the nation's leading music sales tracker, Hanteo Chart, the Hanteo Music Awards marked its second year this year. It first kicked off in 2021 and held its first ceremony in January 2022 online. Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Hanteo Chart brought the ceremony to a physical venue for its second edition and announced it will continue in person in the coming years.