Epik High’s Tablo Reveals The Truth Behind Year End Award Ceremonies
Epik High recently had an interview with Forbes where they talked about their journey as independent artists and their views about the Korean music industry.
In the interview, Tablo confirmed a speculated truth behind annual award ceremonies. He revealed that many of them refuse to give you the award if you don’t attend or perform at their ceremony.
“Usually they want you to come and perform but it just seemed weird for us. ‘You guys got an award. Congratulations. Can you come?’ And we were like, ‘Unfortunately, [we] can’t.’ Then they were like, ‘Then they don’t give you the award.’
It probably wasn’t an award we deserved to get. So we just decided not to [go], and just decided to stick with concerts and shows….”
— Tablo
Epik High made a decision to decline any awards that required their attendance. They believed that if it really was an award meant for them, they wouldn’t have to attend.
“The policy we made was if they would give us the award even if weren’t there, even if we didn’t perform for them, that would be the award worth getting. That’s what we decided.
Every call that we got from the award shows, we told them, ‘We’ll receive the award if you’ll give it to us even if we can’t go.’ And most of them – of course – were like, ‘We really want to give you the award but you guys have to come and perform. You guys at least need to be there.’
We said no to all those shows.
And then one of the shows was like, ‘Okay, you don’t have to come. We’ll give you the award. It’s your award so you’re going to get the award anyway.’ So we decided to go to that one.
So we were going to go to that one, but in the end somehow we decided not to. So we got a very thankful video. But they were awesome.”
— Tablo
Even though they declined many award show offers, Tablo explained that he understands the award shows’ point of view.
“It’s totally understandable. It is an award show. The show part of it is very important.
I understand that for people who watch these shows, it would be weird if no one was there and it was just a bunch of announcements for the awards.”
— Tablo
Although Epik High skipped out on many award shows, they are holding true to their promise of meeting more fans by holding more concerts and shows!
Read Tablo’s full interview below:
There was a lot said in the room that day, but this has been something that I keep thinking about since it is year-end award season. It didn’t really fit into the piece but I wanted to share this bit from the transcript. pic.twitter.com/ESj3KPZScv
— Tamar Herman (@TamarWrites) December 28, 2018
Share This Post
