Boy band Seventeen and girl group aespa won the grand prizes at the 39th Golden Disc Awards, which took place on Saturday and Sunday at the Mizuho PayPay Dome in Fukuoka, Japan.

The two-day music ceremony, hosted by the JoongAng Group, celebrated the successes of K-pop acts by giving out multiple honors and two grand prizes — Digital Song of the Year and Album of the Year — and popular vote awards for male and female acts.


Seventeen won the grand prize for Album of the Year with its 12th EP “Spill the Feels” (2024).

“We are incredibly proud of Carat [Seventeen’s fandom] who made this achievement possible," Seventeen's members said during their acceptance speech. “We’ll continually strive to do our best, keeping the significance of this award close to our hearts."

This marks Seventeen’s second grand prize and its 10th consecutive award at the event, starting with its Rookie Artist of the Year award at the 30th Golden Disc Awards. The group also saw a yearly total of 10 million album sales for two consecutive years.

Girl group aespa nabbed three awards at the event, including the grand prize for Song of the Year with “Supernova” (2024). The group also won Best Digital Song and Best Album awards for "Supernova" and "Armageddon" (2024).

“We feel so refreshed with this grand prize to start the new year,” said aespa members during their acceptance speech. “We hope our fans stay tuned as we will still be active this year.”

The two parts of the awards ceremony took place on Saturday and Sunday. The event was hosted by singer Sung Si-kyung, singer-actor Cha Eun-woo and actor Mun Ka-young. JoongAng Group’s Vice Chairman Hong Jeong-do, actors Park Bo-gum, Park Eun-bin and former baseball player Lee Dae-ho attended the event as award presenters.

The live broadcast of the event was canceled in the aftermath of the Jeju Air crash that took place in Muan, South Jeolla, on Dec. 29. However, the event took place as planned and was recorded.

The first part of the event was broadcast on Monday and the second part was shown on Tuesday morning on JTBC, Naver TV and Chzzk. The recorded shows will also air on JTBC2 and JTBC4.

The attendees at the event expressed their condolences to the victims and the bereaved families of the Jeju Air tragedy.

“The pain and sorrow must be indescribable, but I hope that music will help them recover from the agony and retrieve peace,” said host Sung.

“We extend heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families, and we will always remember the tragedy," said aespa members.

Girl group IVE won Best Digital Song and Best Album awards for the second consecutive year with its song “‘HEYA” (2024) and the album “IVE Switch” (2024). (G)I-DLE also took home the same awards with “Fate” (2024) and “[2]” (2024), and its member Yuqi won Best Solo Artist.

BIBI and Day6, who made their first appearances at the Golden Disc Awards, won Best Album awards, with the rock band also winning the Best Band award.

“I think we all need sympathy these days,” said BIBI. “I thank Tiger JK and Yoon Mi-rae for supporting me and bringing me out of the depths when I was going through a hard time.”

ILLIT, TWS, BabyMonster and NCT Wish were honored with Rookie of the Year awards, with TWS and ILLIT also walking away with Best Album awards. Virtual boy band Plave was named the winner of the Most Popular Male Artist, and the Most Popular Female Artist award went to Le Sserafim.

NewJeans received the Best Album and Cosmopolitan Artist awards at the event. The Golden Disc Awards was the group’s final official appearance arranged by ADOR before the members announced the termination of their exclusive contracts with the agency on Nov. 28.

The awards recognized songs and albums released from November 2023 through November 2024. The winners were determined based on quantitative data, including album sales and streaming, and expert evaluations.

BY HWANG JEE-YOUNG, YOON SEUNG-JIN [yoon.seungjin@joongang.co.kr]