The nominees for the 19th Korean Music Awards are already out! Also known as the "Korean GRAMMY," who do you think will be chosen by music critics?  

(Photo : IU, BTS, SHINee, aespa (News1))

This year marks the 19th anniversary of the Korean Popular Music Awards, also known as KMA, which focuses on the "musical achievement" of songs and albums released this year. Among Korean musicians and artists, various idols were also nominated in the K-pop category, drawing attention.

BTS, SHINee, IU, More: 19th Korean Music Awards Nominees

(Photo : KMA (News1))

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On February 9, a press conference was held online to announce candidates for the 19th Korean Music Awards (KMA). There are a total of three categories divided into 25 sub-categories and here are the nominees from the K-pop scene.

 'Best Pop Song'

(Photo : AKMU (News1))

AKMU - 'NAKKA' (with IU)
IU - 'LILAC'
WENDY - 'When This Rain Stops'
Lee Mujin - 'Traffic Light'
Lee Seung Hwan, Sunwoo JungA - 'How Could You'

'Best Pop Album'

AKMU - NEXT EPISODE
Kim Hyun Chul - City Breeze & Love Song
IU - LILAC
eAeon - Fragile
Jung Cha Sik - Night Driving

 'Best K-Pop Song'

aespa - 'Next Level'
STAYC - 'ASAP'
BTS - 'Butter'
Weeekly - 'After School'
TXT - 'OX1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You) feat. Seori

'Best K-Pop Album'

(Photo : SHINee (News1))

aespa - Savage
CL - ALPHA
SHINee - Atlantis
BoA - Better
CHUNGHA - Querencia

 'Rookie of the Year'

(Photo : aespa (News1))

aespa
SINCE
STAYC
Lee Mujin
Haepali

'Musician of the Year'

(Photo : BTS (News1))

Kim Hyun Chul
The Volunteers
BTS
IU
Lang Lee

 'Song of the Year'

aespa - 'Next Level'
AKMU - 'NAKKA' (with IU)
BTS - 'Butter'
Lang Lee - 'There is A Wolf'
Lee Mujin - 'Traffic Light'

'Album of the Year'

(Photo : IU (News1))

AKMU - NEXT EPISODE
Kim Hyun Chul - City Breeze & Love Song
IU - LILAC
Lang Lee - There is A WolF
Chun Yong Sung - Drowned

What Is Korean Music Awards? More Details on The 'Korean Version of Grammy'

(Photo : KMA 2020 (News1))

Launched in 2004, the Korean Music Awards commemorates its 19th year this 2022. Also referred to as the "Korean Grammy," the awards ceremony started with a sense of concern that there should be at least one award in Korean society to recognize and evaluate popular music as an artistic creation, according to Chairperson Kim Changnam.

While most awards measure the popularity of the nominees through fandom voting and social media index, this time, criteria is not a thing and professionals, music critics, producers, reporters, industry officials and academia will be the ones who can only select the nominees and winners.

In particular, the candidates were selected based on singers, songs and albums which has been active in the past years. The data were gathered from December 1, 2020 to November 30, 2021.

(Photo : KMA 2016 (News1))

"Korean Music Awards is a form in which candidates for each genre come up and become candidates for the general category, so just because it is included in a specific genre category does not mean that it is excluded from the main award. Rather than judging which candidate did better or not, it is meaningful to look at music and works that have achieved excellent musical achievements throughout the year."

 "In the meantime, there have been cases where there have been too many candidates in the pop category even if excellent K-pop works have been released, and we are trying to point out more works (with the establishment of this K-pop category)," a committee member explained.

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Written by Eunice Dawson