Melon Awards 2011 honor B2ST, Super Junior, and other stars
Korea's award season has begun, kicking off with the 2011 Melon Music Awards! Considered as one of Korea's most prestigious music awards shows, alongside the Golden Disk Awards (considered the South Korean "Grammy" equivalent), the Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA), and the Seoul Music Awards, the Melon Music Awards has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 2009. Its third year ceremony, hosted by actress Park Shin Hye, B2ST's Doojoon, and Super Junior's Leeteuk, was held on November 24 at the Seoul Olympic Park Stadium. Winners of the Melon Music Awards know they won on the sheer basis of sales and online votes. The Melon Music Awards are famously transparent in their calculations: digital sales accounts for 80% of the final results, alongside 20%, which goes to online votes cast on Melon.com.
The big winner this year at the Melon Music Awards was idol group B2ST, winning the 2011 Artist Award (Daesang). This coveted award was won by Girls' Generation for the past two years in a row, so B2ST actually became the first idol group and the first male winners of the 2011 Artist Award. Also in the running for the 2011 Artist Award were the 2011 Top 10 Artists 2NE1, f(x), Leessang, Park Jung Hyun, Big Bang, Super Junior, SECRET, SISTAR, and IU; each of the artists got the opportunity to go onstage to briefly thank their families, friends, management, and fans.
Many of the artists in the Top 10 also returned to their dormitories with prizes. The 2011 Album (Daesang) went to 2NE1 for their "2NE1 2nd mini-album," while IU won the prestigious 2011 SK Planet Best Song (Daesang) for her hit, "Good Day." "Superstar K2" winner Huh Gak took home the 2011 Best New Artist award, while SM Entertainment labelmates Girls' Generation and Super Junior took home the 2011 Global Artist and 2011 Netizen Popularity Battle Award, respectively.
Other award winners included "Infinity Challenge: West Coast Highway Song Festival Project Album" for 2011 Hot Trend; Baek Ji Young for 2011 MBC Music Star Award; Sunny Hill's Jubee for "Pit-a-Pat," for 2011 OST (lifted from "The Greatest Love" OST); GD&Top for 2011 Rap/Hip Hop; Kim Bum Soo for 2011 R&B/Ballad; CNBLUE for 2011 Rock; T-ara's "Roly Poly" for 2011 Music Video; Lee Seung Hwan for 2011 Performing Arts Award; and Junn Hye Sung, who wrote, among other tracks, Davichi's "Don't Say Goodbye" and Baek Ji Young's "That Woman," for 2011 Song Writer.
Congratulations to all the winners!
Photo courtesy of SportsKorea
Catherine Deen blogs for Yahoo! Philippines OMG! She lives, eats and breathes Korean music, cuisine, telenovelas, and pop culture. Follow her on Twitter @cathsdeen.
