Netizens pointed out the "poor" reception of the 33rd Seoul Music Awards, which generated a discussion regarding the ceremony's relevance and integrity.

Here's what people are saying.

Is Seoul Music Awards Losing its Appeal? K-Netz Discuss 2024 SMA's Relevance After Event Encounters 'Emptiest' Seat Dilemma

Earlier on January 2, the 33rd Seoul Music Awards (2024 SMA) was held at the Rajamangala National Stadium, in Bangkok, marking the event's first time to take place abroad.

As the annual year-end show had already fueled everyone's anticipation, it was intensified by the attendance of numerous K-pop artists, who received their awards and gave energetic performances in between segments.

The event was also hosted by top actor Lee Seung Gi, Girls' Generation Tiffany, and GOT7 BamBam, who showed their irresistible chemistry as MCs of the night.

Furthermore, some of the show's main highlights were NCT Dream receiving the Daesang award (Grand Prize) for 2024 SMA, alongside NewJeans with Best Song ("OMG), BLACKPINK with World Best Artist, and BTS with World Trend Artist.

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However, on January 3, the 33rd Seoul Music Awards was discussed in an online thread for having lots of unoccupied seats. The post's author uploaded still shots from the event's loading time, followed by a barren of empty seats across the arena.

While the first few photos displayed the preparation, the emptiness became more obvious during the main event, when lightsticks from different fandoms were present. See the photos below:

OP then added a comparison by uploading several of BLACKPINK's concert photos at the same arena (Rajamangala National Stadium), showing how the venue would look like if it was thoroughly filled or sold-out.

In the comments, netizens exclaimed how irrelevant the Seoul Music Awards was, and questioned its decision to be held outside South Korea. They also criticized the expensive ticket prices, which they claimed was one of the factors why the show didn't sell out.

Some mentioned BamBam, who candidly expressed his disappointment with the awards show for its poor sound system and how the event simply wanted to get money out of them.

Here's how they reacted:

•  "Let's just get rid of this show. Nobody acknowledges this award show, so why even do it overseas?"
•  "They had an award ceremony? I just learned about it because it made no impact."
•  "What is this? They went overseas? But why?"
•  "It's not even a solo concert and my bias would only be performing 1-2 songs so who would go?"
•  "What's worse is that the tickets cost the local people almost a month of their salary."
•  "Even NCT fans weren't able to fill up the whole venue."
•  "I just wish that we get rid of SM-A."
•  "After reading the exchange BamBam has on Twitter, maybe idols don't want to deal with these badly run, insignificant, clearly rigged awards."

What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments below!

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Written by Riely Miller