Will 2023 Be The First Time In 11 Years That A K-Pop Girl Group Wins The “Artist Of The Year” Daesang? Fans Weigh In
One of the most coveted awards for a K-Pop artist to win is the “Artist of the Year” award at the annual MAMA Awards, which is given “in honor for artists with artistic achievement, technical proficiency, and overall excellence in the music industry”. First awarded to TVXQ in 2006, any artist that wins this daesang has undoubtedly made a huge impact on the K-Pop industry, and deserves to be recognized for all that they’ve done and achieved.
BTS has, unsurprisingly, earned the most “Artist of the Year” awards of any K-Pop artist, receiving it for the past seven years at the MAMA Awards from 2016 until 2022. Prior to their long stretch of wins, BIGBANG won the award in 2015, EXO in 2014, G-Dragon in 2013, BIGBANG again in 2012, and, in 2011, Girls’ Generation was the last female artist to receive the award.
That means that it’s been 11 years since a female artist was awarded this daesang, even prior to BTS’s long string of consecutive wins. Given that male artists tend to make more album sales overall than female artists, and physical album sales make up a large portion (30%) of what determines who wins the “Artist of the Year” award, girl groups have been at a disadvantage for some time.
But 2023 might just change things. Not only is BTS on a hiatus as a group, but K-Pop albums are selling at higher numbers overall, with girl groups finally starting to more regularly reach the near million mark or even over a million. On top of that, other criteria that is taken into consideration for who wins the award are song downloads/streaming (30% of the total) as well as a judge panel (40% of the total), and female artists are absolutely owning the digital market in K-Pop right now.
With still-young girl groups like IVE and NewJeans earning record numbers of PAKs and dominating Korean music charts, they’re certainly in the running for being the first female artist in over a decade to win “Artist of the Year”.
Then again, this could also be the first time that SEVENTEEN takes home the highly prestigious award given how much they’ve accomplished already this year.
With NewJeans preparing for a comeback this summer and it being unknown if or when IVE and SEVENTEEN will have a second comeback this year, the rookie girl group might have the best advantage in accumulating digital points between now and the end of the year for awards season. But at this point, it really is still a toss-up between the most successful artists of 2023 so far, so it’s hard to really say who the daesang will go to!
Fans recently discussed the possibility of a girl group winning the “Artist of the Year” award on Reddit, with many sharing different opinions on the matter.
Comment
by u/AthomicBot from discussion It has been over 11 years since a Girl Group has won an Artist of the Year Daesang. Do you think this will finally be the year for a GG win, and if so, who will it go to?
in kpopthoughts
Comment
by u/Relevant_Compote_818 from discussion It has been over 11 years since a Girl Group has won an Artist of the Year Daesang. Do you think this will finally be the year for a GG win, and if so, who will it go to?
in kpopthoughts
Comment
by u/SnooMacarons3863 from discussion It has been over 11 years since a Girl Group has won an Artist of the Year Daesang. Do you think this will finally be the year for a GG win, and if so, who will it go to?
in kpopthoughts
Comment
by u/kpop_shinee from discussion It has been over 11 years since a Girl Group has won an Artist of the Year Daesang. Do you think this will finally be the year for a GG win, and if so, who will it go to?
in kpopthoughts
Comment
by u/wolfgangster1817 from discussion It has been over 11 years since a Girl Group has won an Artist of the Year Daesang. Do you think this will finally be the year for a GG win, and if so, who will it go to?
in kpopthoughts
Comment
by u/amazingoopah from discussion It has been over 11 years since a Girl Group has won an Artist of the Year Daesang. Do you think this will finally be the year for a GG win, and if so, who will it go to?
in kpopthoughts
Comment
by u/Anaisot7 from discussion It has been over 11 years since a Girl Group has won an Artist of the Year Daesang. Do you think this will finally be the year for a GG win, and if so, who will it go to?
in kpopthoughts
We’ll just have to wait and see who takes home the highly coveted award!
Share This Post
