2021 Asia Artist Awards Sparks Debate About The High Number Of Grand Prize Winners

Could there be such a thing as too much? Korean netizens certainly think so and it’s all because of the recently held 2021 Asia Artist Awards.

On December 2, the 2021 Asia Artist Awards aired its live ceremony to honor and celebrate all of the outstanding achievements of Asian artists, whether it was television, film, or music. As the exciting ceremony eventually concluded, however, it didn’t take long for netizens to realize there were many awards handed out—almost too many.

According to reports, there were 26 different teams and 36 individual people who were given awards during the ceremony. Not only that, but there were duplicate winners for many of the award categories. As a matter of fact, most of the categories had duplicate winners. Best New Artist, Best Musician, Popularity, Best Acting, Hot Trend, and more all had multiple winners—creating a large number of victors for the evening.

However, it was the highly coveted Daesang (Grand Prize) that made headlines for its number of winners. The 2021 Asia Artist Awards selected 9 different artists as the grand victors—6 musical artists (SEVENTEEN, NCT 127, BTS, Stray Kids, aespa, and Lim Young Woong) and 3 actors (Lee Jung Jae, Yoo Ah In, and Lee Seung Gi.)

While in prior years, the Asia Artist Awards would only select one recipient for the Daesang Award in each category, the number of winners started to drastically increase starting in 2019, with the most recent 2021 ceremony having the highest number to date.

And while some netizens had no problem celebrating the talented artists who were recognized for their achievements, there were others who believed that the amount of winners took away from the honor itself.

• “This place is known for having absolutely no fundamental values.”
• “There’s no IU in the Daesang…”
• “Wow [insert meme]”
• “This takes the meaning away from the Daesang ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ”
• “How is that the Daesang? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ”
• “What the heck, why do they have so many Daesangs…”

Other comments suggested that they change the guidelines for the future ceremonies, but only time will tell. Regardless of the situation, a big congratulations is in order for each 2021 Asia Artist Awards winner!