BTS, IU, aespa Win Big At 36th Golden Disc Awards — Watch The Show For Free On MeWATCH

BTS’s BE won Album of the Year at the 36th Golden Disc Awards on Saturday (Jan 8); it’s the fifth year in a row the group took home the award. Elsewhere, IU received Digital Song of the Year — for ‘Celebrity’ — for a second consecutive year.

Dubbed the Korean Grammys, the Golden Disc Awards took place at the Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome and was hosted by Lee Seung-Gi, Lee Da-Hee, and Sung Si-Kyung.

Let's keep this show going: Meet the hosts of the 36th Golden Disc Awards (from left) — Sung Si-Kyung Lee Da-Hee and Lee Seung-Gi.

The 36th edition Golden Disc Awards unfolded on January 8 at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. Usually, the ceremony takes place over the days but thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s was streamlined to a single show. There was no audience present and the performances were pre-recorded.

Besides Album of the Year, BTS also won a Bonsang (Main Award) in both the Digital Song and Album categories, the fan-voted Seezn Mos Popular Artist Award. In addition to winning Digital Song of Year, IU was also honoured with Bongsangs in the Digital Song and Album categories.

All the nominees were songs and albums released between November 2020 and mid-November 2021. Nominees for major categories were based on quantitative measures like streaming counts and album sales. The winners were chosen 60 percent based on sales counted until mid-December 2021 while 40 percent based on scoring by the judge panel, made up of 50 industry specialists including music journalists, music program producing directors, music critics, music distribution representatives, and the ceremony’s executive committee.

Here are the winners:

Seezn Most Popular Artist Award: BTS

Artist of the Year: aespa

Best Group: Brave Girls

Best Solo Artist: Lim Young Woong

Digital Song (Bonsang - Main Award): Lee Mujin, STAYC, OH MY GIRL, AKMU, HEIZE, aespa, IU, BTS

Best Album (Bonsang - Main Award): TOMORROW X TOGETHER, ENHYPEN, IU, NCT DREAM, Stray Kids, NCT 127, SEVENTEEN, BTS

Best Performance: THE BOYZ, SOMI

Cosmopolitan Artist Award: SEVENTEEN, aespa

Rookie of the Year: STAYC, aespa

If you’re not into who won what, the nearly four-and-a-half-hour long Golden Disc Awards (note: the show is in Korean and doesn’t carry English subtitles) was packed with exhilarating performances by the likes of Kardi, Brave Girls, The Boyz, Enhyphen, IU and BTS – which you can stream individually on meWATCH. You can watch the pre-show Red Carpet here.

Photos: The 36th Golden Disc Records