Ready to unravel soon at the Inspire Arena in South Korea is one of the most highly anticipated awards ceremony, and the 2023 Melon Music Awards lineup of attendees and performers have already become a significant highlight drawing us to tune in for the show this weekend. The annually held awards show is one of the major music ceremonies of the year organised by Kakao Entertainment and Melon that first opened its offline showcase in the year 2009 in Seoul. This year’s show will be hosted by Honda Hitomi and Yabuki Nako, former members of Mnet’s project girl group IZ*ONE, debuting through the show Produce 48 in 2018.
With the 15th edition of the ceremony being held in Incheon this year, some new award categories like Melon’s Million Top 10 awards will make the show worth watching. Majority of the categories have required fans to chip in their votes, which when counted along with judges’ evaluations and streaming points, will determine the winners of the night. However, there are also some top prize awards whose winners will be solely decided on the basis of the judges’ votes. All music released between November 4, 2022, and November 1, 2023 could be listed as the eligible nominations for this year’s show. Here’s what we know about the 15th Melon Music Awards (2023 멜론 뮤직어워드) so far!
2023 Melon Music Awards Lineup
2023 Melon Music Awards Lineup of Performers
The full Melon Music Awards 2023 performers list includes artists from various K-pop entertainment agencies and then some more. Although most of the artists included here are deemed as representatives of the 4th Generation of K-pop, other seniors artists from 2nd and 3rd generations will also be gracing the evening. The full lineup includes groups such as NCT DREAM, SHINee, BOYNEXTDOOR, RIIZE, ZEROBASEONE, Korean indie band Silica Gel, IVE, aespa, STAYC, NewJeans, KISS OF LIFE, and soloists like Lee Youngji, and Japanese singer imase.
A leading South Korean media outlet also noted that the Saturday’s event will see artists presenting original showcases that haven’t been seen before ever. NCT DREAM will be performing their song Poison from their latest album ISTJ released earlier this year. It will be the first time for the group to be performing their album’s B-side live. On top of that, IVE will also step out with their one-of-a-kind ancient mythology-themed production.
aespa will debut with a special choreography that requires the members to dance in pairs. BOYNEXTDOOR will be working on something else other than their usual playful stage concepts, whereas ZEROBASEONE may show up as knights from the medieval age. Moreover, since SHINee members celebrated their 15th anniversary in 2023, their stage performance will also make for an emotional and unmissable presentation that will map out the group’s long musical history since their debut.
Melon Music Awards 2023 Presenters Lineup
Asian celebrities from various entertainment beats will be presenting the awards to the nominated musicians on the glorious day. The lineup includes Kwak Tube, Lee Seo-jin, Chun Woo-hee, Jang Ki-yong, Hon Jin-kyung, Psick University, RalRal, Kim Ah-young, Park Jenny, Kim Jae-young, Pyo Ye-jin, Kim Jae-young, Shin Eun-soo, Lee Sang-yi, Lee Joo-been, Lee Jun-young, Lee Chae-min and Lee Hak-joo.
When and Where to Watch Melon Music Awards 2023
Having been held as an offline event since 2009, the 2023 MMAs will be held on December 2, 2023, starting at 4 PM KST with the Melon Music Awards Red Carpet. Following which, the main show ceremony will kick off at 5 PM KST. It will be live streamed via the Melon, Wavve and ABEMA apps. International audiences may even tune into the Beyond Live platform for the same. The ceremony may or may not be streamed on YouTube. We will update this section if the streaming link goes live later.
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2023 Melon Music Awards Nominations and Awards Categories
MMA 2023 Top 10 Artists (Winners) – the same names are nominated for the Artist of the Year category
aespa
(G)I-DLE
IVE
LE SSERAFIM
NewJeans
BTS
Jungkook
Lim Young-woong
NCT DREAM
SEVENTEEN
New Artist of the Year
BOYNEXTDOOR
KISS OF LIFE
PLAVE
RIIZE
ZEROBASEONE
Best OST
Big Naughty’s With Me for The Interest of Lovei
(G)I-DLE Miyeon’s The Painted on the Moonlight for My Dearest
Younha’s Letter for Ditto
Lim Jaehyun’s Heaven for It Was Spring
Paul Kim’s You Remember for The Glory
KakaoBank Favourite Star Award
aespa
IVE
NewJeans
BTS
ENHYPEN
NCT DREAM
RIIZE
Lim Young-woong
SEVENTEEN
ZEROBASEONE
Best Song of the Year
aespa’s Spicy
(G)I-DLE’ Queencard
IVE’s I Am
LE SSERAFIM’s Unforgiven ft Nile Rogers
Jisoo’s Flower
NewJeans’ Ditto
STAYC’s Teddy Bear
SEVENTEEN BSS’ Fighting ft Lee Youngji
NCT DREAM’s Candy
Park Jae-jung’s Let’s Say Goodbye
Best Group – Female
(G)I-DLE
aespa
IVE
LE SSERAFIM
NewJeans
Best Group – Male
BSS of SEVENTEEN
BTS
NCT DREAM
SEVENTEEN
TOMORROW X TOGETHER
Best Solo Artist – Female
Jisoo
Lee Youngji
Sin Ye-young
Song Ha-yea
Zia
Best Solo Artist – Male
Big Naughty
DK of December
Jungkook of BTS
Lim Young-woong
Woody
Best Pop Artist
Charlie Puth
Ed Sheeran
Post Malone
Sia
SZA
Album of the Year
(G)I-DLE’s I Feel
aespa’s My World
IVE’s I’ve Ive
Jimin’s FACE
NCT DREAM’s ISTJ
LE SSERAFIM’s Unforgiven
NewJean’s Get Up
Parc Jae-jung’s Alone
SEVENTEEN’s FML
TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s The Name Chapter: Temptation
Other categories also include Millions Top 10 Artists, Best Music Style, Record of the Year, Hot Trend Award, Stage of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Music Video of the Year, Global Artist, Global Rising Artist, J-pop Favourite Artist and more.
Will you be watching the MMA 2023 ceremony? Let us know your thoughts on the nominations in the comments section below.
Also read: 2023 MAMA Awards Day 2 Winners List: ZEROBASEONE Lead as the Best New Male Artist