The first ever “Gaon Charts K-Pop Awards” was held on February 22nd at the Samsung Card Hall in the Blue Square in Hannam-dong, Seoul. About 1500 fans showed up to watch the 3-hour-long awards ceremony that was hosted by composer Joo Young Hoon and SNSD‘s Taeyeon.
The “Gaon Charts K-Pop Awards” was tri-hosted by the Gaon Music Charts, On Off Entertainment Media, and Star News. The event was also supported by the Korean Ministry of Culture. The awards show is the only one of its kind that is dedicated to all aspects of the music industry.
14 artists received the “Singer of the Year Award.” The criteria for the awards were based off a compilation of Gaon Charts’ data from 2011 for the most popular digital singles by month and for quarterly album sales.
Other prominent awards included the Rookie Award, the K-Pop Contribution Award, and the Producer Award. The “Oricon Hallyu Award” was also given to the group that had the top album sales on the Oricon Charts. Oricon Group president Koike Ko presented this award himself to the artists who won the award, SNSD (Girls’ Generation). Finally, the “Foreign Album of the Year Award” was won by world renown band Maroon 5. Maroon 5 was unable to attend the ceremony, but did greet their fans through a video.
The winners for all of the awards were as follows:
Singer of the Year Awards (Albums):
1st Quarter: TVXQ
2nd Quarter: B2ST
3rd Quarter: Super Junior
4th Quarter: SNSD
Singer of the Year Awards (Singles):
January: Secret
February: IU
March: K.Will
April: Big Bang
May: 2NE1
June: Secret
July: T-ARA
August: Leessang
September: Davichi
October: Lee Seung Ki
November: Wonder Girls
December: IU
Rookie Awards:
Huh Gak (Solo Male)
Kim Bo Kyung (Solo Female)
B1A4 (Group Male)
A-Pink (Group Female)
Composer of the Year Award: Yoon Sang (For IU’s “The Story Only I Didn’t Know”)
Writer of the Year Award: Kim Ee Na (For IU’s “The Story Only I Didn’t Know” and “You & I”)
Demonstrator of the Year (Chorus): Kim Hyun Ah (For T-ARA’s “Roly-Poly”)
Demonstrator of the Year (Performance): Kang Soo Ho (For K.Will’s “My Heart is Beating”)
Style Award (Choreography): Prepix (For B2ST’s “Fiction”)
Style Award (Stylist): Seo Soo Kyung
Technical Award: Ko Seung Wook (For T-ARA’s “Roly-Poly”)
Rising Artists of the Year: Noel, Girl’s Day, The KOXX
New Media Platform Award: YouTube, Daum
K-Pop Contributor Award: SM Entertainment‘s Lee Soo Man
Producer Award: Core Contents Media‘s Kim Kwang Soo
Oricon Special Award: SNSD
Foreign Album Award: Maroon 5
(Source: Star News + OSEN via Naver)
