Aespa Is Now One Of Only 6 K-Pop Artists To Achieve The “Rookie Grand Slam”
When a new K-Pop artist receives the “Rookie of the Year” (or similar types) award at all five major music award shows in South Korea — the Melon Music Awards (MMA), the Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA), the Golden Disk Awards (GDA), the Gaon Chart Music Awards, and the Seoul Music Awards (SMA) — they are given the title of achieving a “Rookie Grand Slam”. This is very rare, and in fact, had only happened to five groups before this year.
Aespa is the newest artist to achieve this accomplishment, after they received the “Artist of the Year” award at the Golden Disk Awards on January 8!
The term was first coined back in 2008, when SHINee became the first K-Pop group to accomplish this feat.
It was seven years before another K-Pop artist reached the same level of rookie power! It was iKON that was next to achieve this incredible feat in 2015.
After iKON, it was another two years before Wanna One became the next artist to earn the title of “Rookie Grand Slam”, after their debut in 2017. It just goes to show how huge of an impact the group made, even as a temporary project!
It was another two years until not just one, but two more artists were added to this short list: ITZY and TXT, who both managed to accomplish this achievement in 2019. ITZY also became the first girl group to do it!
Now, of course, aespa becomes the sixth group overall and the second girl group to earn the “Rookie Grand Slam” title. This also means that SM Entertainment is the only company to have multiple groups accomplish this!
Congratulations to aespa for joining this elite list of iconic and legendary artists!
aespa has now joined Shinee, iKON, WannaOne, TXT and ITZY as the only groups to achieve the “Rookie Grand Slam”.
🏆 Gaon Chart Music Awards
🏆 Seoul Music Awards
🏆 MelOn Music Awards
🏆 Mnet Asian Music Awards
🏆 Golden Disk Awards pic.twitter.com/9lBUkI7oFT— ً (@thatshotg) January 8, 2022
