BTS, IU win top prizes at 36th Golden Disc Awards

BTS and IU won the top prizes Saturday at the 36th Golden Disc Awards, the annual South Korean event that honors achievements in the local music industry.

BTS took home album of the year award at a ceremony at Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome for its album “Be,” which was released in November 2020. It was the fifth consecutive year that the group won the top honor in the album category.

The group also won three additional awards, including the Seezn most popular artist award, digital song and best album. BTS did not attend the ceremony as the members are on a long-term break. Instead, the boy band appeared in a video message and thanked its fans.

“‘Be’ was an album through which we aimed to deliver a message of hope to those suffering due to COVID-19, but we have instead received a lot of comfort from many others. We’d like to share this honor with Army, who always support us,” BTS leader RM said during the acceptance speech. Army refers to BTS fans.

IU also had a big night, grabbing the top award in the digital song division with her hit “Celebrity,” which was released in March last year. It marked the singer’s second consecutive year winning digital song of the year. She also received awards for digital song and best album.

“Last year was a very meaningful one for me. Closing out my 20s, I worked hard to promote music as I thought it was the best way to express my sincere gratitude to the fans who have been with me for the last 10 years. It feels like I’ve ended my 20s well with people listening to my music, loving me for so long and giving me such a big award like this,” she said.

Girl groups Aespa and StayC took home rookie of the year awards. Aespa also won the Cosmopolitan artist award, digital song and artist of the year. StayC received the award for digital song as well. The best group award and best solo artist awards went to Brave Girls and Lim Young-woong, respectively, while The Boyz and Jeon So-mi won the awards for best performance.

The winners were selected based on the sales of singles and albums released between November 2020 and mid-November last year, as well as evaluations by music experts, according to the Golden Disc Awards. Sales accounted for 60 percent of the final score, with expert evaluation accounting for 40 percent.

Meanwhile, this year’s music award ceremony was held without a live audience due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The event was hosted by veteran ballad singer Sung Si-kyung, actress Lee Da-hee and actor-singer Lee Seung-gi, while award presenters included actors Jung Woo-sung and Joo Ji-hoon, Jeon So-min and Han Sun-hwa.

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