The 2022 Genie Music Awards was held on November 8, 2022, at Namdong Gymnasium in Incheon, South Korea. The prestigious awarding body was attended by renowned artists such as TEMPEST, Red Velvet, (G)I-DLE, NCT Dream, and more!

Due to the pandemic, this is the first time that Genie Music Awards took place with a live audience after three years, hence, giving high expectations to the fans - from unparalleled performances and fair judging.

As the victors were announced, THIS K-pop group who bagged the trophies for two daesang categories, namely 'Album of the Year' and 'Singer of the Year' became the talk of the town, which allowed the netizens to speculate that their agency is rigging award shows.

Is the award show manipulation making sense? Stay tuned to this article to know more!

SM Entertainment Accused of Years-Long of Award Show Manipulation

(Photo : SM Entertainment Official Website)

According to media news outlets, the judging criteria for the daesang categories included 60% digital sales and 40% judge score, while artists category awards were chosen based on 20% online voting, 50% digital sales, and 30% judge score.

Meanwhile, performance category awards follow 20% online voting, 30% digital sales, and 50% judge score. Ultimately, special wards were entirely reliant on online voting.

(Photo : Instagram || @genie_gma)

Considering these judging criteria, fans crafted predictions on who may win the daesang awards for the 2022 Genie Music Awards. Grounding on these projections, the fans were surprised that only the 'Song of the Year' was predicted.

NCT Dream, an artist under SM Entertainment, brought home this year's Top Artist and Top Album Award (for 'Glitch Mode'), which contradicts what fans expect. This award show result caused people to speculate that their agency has been manipulating award shows for years.

(Photo : Twitter || @NCTsmtown_DREAM)

Upon the proclamation of the 'Glitch Mode' singers as the recipient of the awards, netizens deemed that the judging criteria were ignored since fans are expecting Lim Young Woong to sweep this year's daesang categories.

Some NEVERLANDs and DIVEs who bet for their favorites even pointed out that NCT Dream's 'Glitch Mode' was at the bottom of Genie's charts, heightening the criticisms of the win.

(Photo : Twitter || @HobiRide)

READ MORE: SM Artists Become Hot Topic For Getting 'Snubbed' By International Music Awards 

In an online fan forum, many netizens reviewed the timeline on which they have considered SM Entertainment to have manipulated award shows.

Korean netizens speculated that aside from rigging the 2022 Genie Music Awards, SM Entertainment also paid the way for Taeyeon to win the digital album awards at the 2020 Seoul Music Awards. However, the fans criticized the win because they thought the award show "made a separate daesang" for digital releases to give recognition to the SM Artist.

(Photo : Instagram || @taeyeon_ss)

READ MORE: SM Entertainment Artists' Supposed Schedule in 2023 Surfaces- Group Comebacks, Concerts, More

The fans' blood even boiled when the digital daesang was removed entirely from the award show the following year. Moreover, in 2021, NCT 127 won the daesang for the 'Sticker' album.

With the 127 squad's win, a netizen wrote, "This was a major award show and for the first time in history, an artist with no songs that entered the yearly music chart won. So it means nothing more that the judges removed points from BTS."

(Photo : Twitter || @NCTsmtown_127)

With NCT Dream's proclamation as the winner, here are some of the fans' comments:

"So they lowered Im Youngwoong's points?"

"Meanwhile, they're not giving the daesang to groups that make sense like SHINee or Red Velvet? Even Aespa's songs did well but it would've been a bit random too."

"There's logically no way that the judges would lower the points for BTS and Im Youngwoong, so this has to be rigged."

"The season 2 of Seoul Music Awards."

"NCT are random."

DreamZens Come Forward to Defend the 'Glitch Mode' Singers

As SM Entertainment and NCT Dream was drowned in the sea of allegations, fans of the sub-unit came forward to defend and congratulate the 'Glitch Mode' singers.

A handful of their fans highlighted that their agency often mistreats NCT Dream, and two members are overworked by juggling simultaneous activities from two sub-units. Thus, SM Entertainment will waste no time buying a music award show for the boys.

(Photo : Twitter || @vianaAp2313__)

SM Stans commemorated that with this win, NCT Dream snatched a seat on the double daesang winners from the entertainment, joining Girls' Generation (2009 MMA) and EXO (2014 MAMA).

DreamZens emphasized that 7Dream is forever lucky because the 2022 Genie Music Award slashed their first appearance as a complete sub-unit after 'The Dream Show 2,' where the singers promise the fans that they will double their efforts for the fans as a seven-member boy group.

Also, some netizens even threw shade that other entertainment labels are also rigging not just local awarding bodies but international music shows and media outlets to feature their artists.

READ MORE: Stray Kids & SEVENTEEN Show Close Friendship With NCT DREAM After THIS

What are your thoughts on this allegation? Share them below!

KpopStarz own this article

This is written by Sophia Carson