The 2023 Melon Music Awards were held on December 2, 2023, and it took place at the newly built Inspire Arena in Yeongjongdo, Incheon, South Korea. It marked its 14th annual ceremony this year. The award ceremony was created in 2005, by Melon, the biggest music streaming platform in South Korea. This year, it was held by Kakao Entertainment, having its origin in the late 1970s. Big names in the Korean industry performed at the ceremony, such as NewJeans, Riize, Aespa, NCT Dream, and ZeroBaseOne.
The performances are the most anticipated part of the ceremony, but so are the winners of the Daesang, translated into ‘Grand Prize,’ which is awarded to the best-performing acts of the year, a total of four. NewJeans took home the most awards, winning five awards, including two Daesangs, Song of the Year with “Ditto,” and Artist of the Year. IVE won Album of the Year with their hit I’ve IVE and NCT Dream won Record of the Year ZeroBaseOne and Riize made history at the MMA’s this year, being the first male group to win “Best New Artist ” in the same year. Both groups respectively made waves and broke records with their debuts this year. Other notable winners of the ceremony were Jungkook winning Best Male Solo, and Lee Young-Ji with Best Female Solo.
Many artists made their mark on the stage, but arguably it was NewJeans, performing their EP album Get Up, and SHINee, being the oldest group among the other nominees as they debuted back in 2009. They performed their hit songs “Sherlock,” “View,” “Dream Girl,” and “Everybody.” It’s safe to say that this year’s stage has been newsworthy.