NCT 127 wins grand prize at 31st Seoul Music Awards

K-pop boy band NCT 127 achieved a landmark feat at the 31st Seoul Music Awards on Sunday, claiming its first grand prize in its six-year career.

“We didn’t expect this (result), but we are deeply moved by receiving such a big award. ... I think the year 2021 was a year that we could shine because we were all together. I’m so proud of the members,” NCT 127 leader Taeyong said at the awards ceremony held in Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome.

Another band member, Doyoung, said, “I’ve dreamed of receiving an award like this for a long time. Thank you for giving us such a great award. We’ll keep up the good work to become an artist that is suitable to an award like this.”

The nine-member act released its third full-length album “Sticker” and a repackaged version, “Favorite,” last year. More than 3 million copies of the latest albums -- 2.4 million for the original album and 1.17 million for the repackaged version -- were sold as of November.

BTS, who won the top honor at the Seoul Music Awards for the fourth consecutive time last year, ended up winning three awards this year. The band received the world best artist award, main award and U+ idol live best artist award, but did not participate in the ceremony.

NCT’s subunit NCT Dream and IU took home the best album award and best song award, respectively, while EXO won the K-wave award. Including BTS, the main award also went to NCT 127, IU, Enhypen, Heize, Brave Girls, Oh My Girl, Kang Daniel, aespa, Ateez, the Boyz, Lim Young-woong and Seventeen.

Lee Mu-jin, Omega X and Epex received rookie of the year awards, while Red Velvet’s Wendy and HyunA won the ballad award and R&B hip-hop award, respectively. Lim Young-woong also won three additional awards, including the OST award, trot award and popular award.

This year’s event was hosted by Kim Sung-joo, Boom and AOA’s Seolhyun. The winners were chosen based on the aggregate score from mobile voting (20 percent), a popularity poll (10 percent), digital downloads and album sales (40 percent) and judges’ evaluations (30 percent).

By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)