Melon Music Awards 2021 announces nominees and criteria for category awards: aespa can win Best Female Group, BLACKPINK’s Lisa is not up for Best Female Solo with Rosé
The nominations of Melon Music Awards 2021 (MMA 2021) have been announced. What is the current voting status of Korean fans?
Since 2005, Korea’s biggest digital music streaming platform, Melon, has set up an award for artists based on user data, votes, experts’ evaluations, etc. In other words, this award most accurately reflects the digital performances of artists and the tastes of domestic music listeners since voting for important categories is not open to international fans.
This year’s Melon Music Awards (MMA) will take place at 6 pm KST on December 4. The same as last year, MMA 2021 will continue to be held online given the complicated situation of the pandemic. The awards ceremony will be available to watch via various live channels such as Melon, KakaoTV and 1theK’s YouTube channel.
Earlier today (November 8), Melon officially announced the nominees for different category awards of MMA 2021. Accordingly, voting begins on November 8 and will end on November 22. There are a total of 9 categories open to vote, including important categories such as Bonsang and Daesang. The remaining categories will be 100% decided by the judges.
However, only Korean fans are allowed to vote for the category awards of MMA 2021 through the Melon app (requires Korean phone number verification). This means that Koreans will directly decide the outcome of the vote. However, voting for the sub-event ‘Legendary Performance’ is still open to international fans if they use Kakaotalk.
Here are the nominations and criteria for the categories of Melon Music Awards 2021 that Korean fans are eligible to cast their votes:
Netizen Popularity Award
Award criteria: 40% digital + 60% votes
BTS
IU
Oh My Girl
Red Velvet
Yang Yoseop, Jung Eunji
Taeyeon
Rosé
Brave Girls
(G)I-DLE
Rookie Of The Year
Award criteria: 60% digital + 20% judges + 20% votes
aespa
STAYC
ENHYPEN
Lee Mu Jin
KyoungSeo
Jeon Gunho
Best Male Solo
Award criteria: 60% digital + 20% judges + 20% votes
Lee Mu Jin
Lim Young Woong
10cm
ASH ISLAND
lIlBOI
Best Female Solo
Award criteria: 60% digital + 20% judges + 20% votes
IU
Taeyeon
Rosé
KyoungSeo
Best Male Group
Award criteria: 60% digital + 20% judges + 20% votes
BTS
NCT Dream
SEVENTEEN
SHINee
Homies
Best Female Group
Award criteria: 60% digital + 20% judges + 20% votes
Oh My Girl
aespa
STAYC
Brave Girls
Song Of The Year
Award criteria: 60% digital + 20% judges + 20% votes
BTS – Butter
IU – Celebrity
aespa – Next Level
Oh My Girl – Dun Dun Dance
Rosé – On The Ground
Lee Mu Jin – Traffic Light
Miranni, Munchman, Kundi Panda, MUSHVENOM – VVS
Heize – HAPPEN
KyoungSeo – Shiny Star (2020)
Song I Han – I Will Be Your Shining Star
Album Of The Year
Award criteria: 60% digital + 20% judges + 20% votes
BTS – BE
NCT Dream – Hot Sauce
IU – LILAC
Oh My Girl – Dear Oh My Girl
SHINee – Don’t Call Me
Joy – Hello
Brave Girls – Summer Queen
AKMU – NEXT EPISODE
Heize – HAPPEN
Baek Yerin – tellusboutyourself
Top 10 Bonsang
Award criteria: 80% digital + 20% vote
BTS
NCT Dream
IU
Baekhyun
aespa
Rosé
Joy
Oh My Girl
Taeyeon
STAYC
SHINee
TWICE
Brave Girls
AKMU
Baek Yerin
ASH ISLAND
Heize
Lim Young Woong
MSG Wannabe (M.O.M)
10cm
Lee Seung Gi
Lee Mu Jin
Jung Eunji, Yang Yoseop
lIlBoI
Hospital Playlist
Huh Gak
Homies
KyoungSeo
Miranni, Munchman, Kundi Panda, MUSHVENOM
Lee Ye Joon
Criteria for other award categories
Artist Of The Year: 60% digital + 20% judges + 20% votes (Selected from TOP 10 Bonsang)
Record Of The Year: 100% judges
Best Collaboration: 70% digital + 30% judges
Hot Trend Award: 70% digital + 30% judges
Project Music Award: 70% digital + 30% judges
Music Video of the Year: 100% judges
What are your predictions for Melon Music Awards 2021’s winners? Please share your thoughts.