Here’s Everything You Need To Know About The 28th Seoul Music Awards

The 28th Seoul Music Awards takes place on the 15th of January at the Gocheok Sky Dome.

With the performers, hosts, presenters and nominees announced, here’s a breakdown of what to expect from the show.

Hosts

Super Junior’s Heechul reprises his role as host, this time with comedian Shin Dong-Yup and actress Kim So-Hyun alongside him.

Presenters

Recently, the people who would be presenting the awards to the winners were revealed. It includes both male and female celebrities.

The male presenters revealed were actors Lee Jung Jae, Ryu Seong Ryong, Kang Ji Hwan, Lee Sang Yeob, Jung Hae In, Jang Dong Yoon, Ahn Hyo Seop, Kim Ji Suk and Woo Do Hwan, all of which are actors.

Lee Sang Yeob, an actor from dramas such as While You Were Sleeping, is pictured below.

The female presenters are as follows: Kim Sae Ron, Clara, Nana, Oh Yeon Seo, Lee Si Young, Ahn Hyun Mo, Kang Han Na, Go Ara, Nam Ji Hyun and Yo Joon Hee. The occupations of the women are more varied, they range from actress to model and even to singer.

Pictured below is Nana from inactive girl group After School.

Nominees and Awards

The Seoul Music Awards announce all the nominees that fall into “main category” awards (as in not fan-voted) in one block and then they specifically name the nominees for each of the fan-voted awards.

There are a lot of nominees for each of these awards. The “main” awards nominees are as follows:

10cm, AOA, Apink, BEN, BLACKPINK, BTOB, BTS, Bolbbalgan4, Chungha, Crush, Davichi, Drunken Tiger, EXO, GFRIEND, GOT7, Girls’ Generation-Oh!GG, Heize, iKON, INFINITE, IU, Jang Deok Cheol, Jung Seung Hwan, KARD, Kim Dong Ryul, Lim Chang Jung, Loco, MAMAMOO, MOMOLAND, Monsta X, MeloMance, Motte, NCT, NU’EST W, Oh My Girl, PENTAGON, Park Bo Ram, Park Hyo Shin, Park Won, Punch, Red Velvet, Roy Kim, SEVENTEEN, Seungri, Sunmi, TWICE, VIBE, WINNER, Wanna One, Yang Da Il, Yong Junhyung, Zico and Zion.T.

So in short, pretty much every artist that released music in 2018. BTS are pictured below.

The “rookie of the year” category is a lot more manageable. Its nominees are as follows: fromis_9, (G)I-DLE, GWSN, HAON, IZ*ONE, Kim Dong Han, LOONA, Minseo, Stray Kids, The Boyz, VINXEN and Yoo Seon Ho.

Pictured below is a girl group who just finished their rookie year, fromis_9.

There is also the popularity award and Kwave popularity award which contain essentially the same nominees as the main awards. The Kwave popularity award is decided by an international fan vote while the popularity award is decided by domestic Korean votes.

At the time of publishing, SHINee were first place in the popularity award…

…and EXO were winning the Kwave popularity award.

In terms of what “main awards” you can expect, we need only look at last year’s event to get a good idea.

The Daesang award is the most prestigious prize, last year it was won by BTS. The Bongsang award is essentially a top ten so ten artists are awarded it each year.

The rest of the awards we can expect as well as last year’s winners are as follows:

Album of the Year won by IU (pictured below).
Best Digital Release won by Yoon Jong-shin.
New Artist(s) Award won by PRISTIN, Chung Ha and Wanna One.
R&B/Ballad Award won by Suran.
OST Award won by Ailee for “I Will Go To You Like The First Snow”
Dance Performance Award won by MAMAMOO and NCT 127.
Band Award won by Iamnot.
Discovery of the Year won by Monsta X.
Fandom School Award won by EXO.

Lineup of Performers

The Seoul Music Awards have announced the first lineup of performers.

They include BTS…

…in what could be one of their last performances together, Wanna One.

…and the nation’s girl group, TWICE!

The lineup also includes SEVENTEEN, Red Velvet, GFRIEND, NUE’ST, IZ*ONE, Im Chang Jung and MOMOLAND. There are likely more artists performing that have yet to be announced.

Tune in to the 28th Seoul Music Awards at 18.50 KST to see all the action.