Korea Grand Music Awards 2025: Day 1

 Given my disposition, I'm sure you're already expecting me to ramble a bit here at the beginning to introduce everything and then get out of the way so you can get to what you and I both know is what you're interested in.

I'm not going to.

Instead, my thoughts will go down at the bottom, which you can read at your leisure after watching all the performances and then seeing the winners. See you then!

performances

ALLDAY PROJECT

ATEEZ (HALA HALA (Hearts Awakened, Live Alive + Wonderland + The Real + BOUNCY (K-HOT CHILLI PEPPERS) + Phantom + In Your Fantasy)

BOYNEXTDOOR (IF I SAY, I LOVE YOU + I FEEL GOOD + Hollywood Action)

THE BOYZ (Stylish + You and I)

CRAVITY (SWISH + Lemonade Fever)

FIFTY FIFTY (Pookie + Eeny Meeny Miny Moe)

INI (DOMINANCE (Korean Ver.))

KiiiKiii (I DO ME (KGMA Ver.)

Lee Chanwon (I Told You + Maybe Today)

MEOVV (BODY + BURNING UP + HANDS UP)

Park Seo Jin (Clown)

Woodz (Drowning + I'll Never Love Again)

Xdinary Heroes (ICU)

xikers (BREATHE + SUPERPOWER (peak))

covers

SMTR25 (Wolf)

winners

2025 Grand Artist (Daesang): ATEEZ

2025 Grand Performer (Daesang): BOYNEXTDOOR

2025 Grand Honor's Choice (Daesang): THE BOYZ, ALLDAY PROJECT

Best Artist 10: ATEEZ, BOYNEXTDOOR, CRAVITY, FIFTY FIFTY, Jennie, Lee Chanwon, RIIZE, THE BOYZ, Xdinary Heroes, xikers

Best Memory: Woodz

Best Band: Xdinary Heroes

Best Stage: CRAVITY

Best Producer: Teddy

Best Hip Hop: J-Hope

Best Music Video: Jin - "Don't Say You Love Me"

Best OST: D.O - "FOREVER" (Resident Playbook OST)

Best Adult Contemporary: Lee Chanwon

Best Trot Performance: Park Seo Jin

IS Rookie: MEOVV

IS Rising Star: KiiiKiii, ALLDAY PROJECT

K-Pop Global Artist: INI

Best Popularity: Lee Chanwon

iMBANK Smart Supporter Award: THE BOYZ

Trend of the Year: Lee Chanwon, NewJeans

final thoughts

You may be wondering what all those links go to. Up top with the performances, those links are my reviews of the songs performed if I have written them (if you want me to write a review on any of those songs I don't already have a review for, you can do that in The Form because I have an option for that and I'd love for more people to take that), which means the full song is included there. The links with the winners go to my artist pages if I have one (this one was a spur of the moment decision so many of these artists will not have one at the time of publishing but this way you can find any reviews I may have written for those artists and hopefully find songs you love). 

You may also notice that I do not anything going on for ALLDAY PROJECT, which is not a deliberate snub by me. I pulled all the performances from the official KGMA YouTube channel, and I did not find theirs there. So as soon as theirs is available, I'll format the group to match the others and include the video.

Now, boring stuff out of the way. Let's get to the good stuff.

First up, the awards. And I've got my cat curled up with me while I'm working on this, which is nice. The cat that likes the loud music and the rapping, not the ballad lover.

Congrats on the Daesangs to ATEEZ, BOYNEXTDOOR, The Boyz, and ALLDAY PROJECT! I have no idea what that makes the total of Daesangs to for each of the groups, but I can tell you it's at minimum highly unlikely that ALLDAY PROJECT has too many because they just debuted this year. And with none of the groups over eight years (barely; The Boyz turn eight next month) for these, I'm fully on board with this. 

xikers got on the Best 10 list, which, frankly is amusing because while they're releasing albums that are hitting top 20 on Billboard, they've yet to get a music show win. Hopefully that changes soon. I'd like that. It would be a bit of a relief.

There's only one name on here that I don't recognize, and that's the best trot performance winner, Park Seojin. But given my discovered love of trot and the gorgeous voice on display in the performances, I'm going to be looking into his discography. I'm genuinely delighted to find a new one so that I can convince a couple of the algorithms to give me more of that. I'm also equally delighted to discover that Lee Chanwon got fancy wins as well because I'm a tiny bit in love with his voice, a completely normal amount, and that brings me so much joy. 

There is a name on this day's list that makes me raise my eyebrows in surprise. Not that I don't think they deserve it, but it was a little bit of an amusing surprise. Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come for them.

Also, shout-out to Teddy because that man is everywhere.

And congrats to everyone else I didn't name. They're all awesome, and I fully agree with these awards. 

Now for the good stuff: the performances.

This is what I live for. Not literally, but my enjoyment of the live performances is so high. Since I started listening to K-Pop, the end of year award shows (and the voting though I didn't do any of that that year and barely any last year or this year) helped introduce me to so many songs (Baila Conmigo by ONEUS remains one of my favorites that I picked up like that), and I hope someone else can find a song that just blows them away. 

Also, just because I don't mention a performance doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. I just want to get this finished, so width of coverage is being traded off for depth, which still isn't great, but honestly, I'm still figuring things out and I forgot I was intending to do this. 

First of all, ATEEZ. I absolutely love how they did that because each member got a chance to shine so well. The costuming somehow manages to make the separate duos match while also being part of the cohesive whole and it's just brilliant. Major kudos to the costumers and stylists. But also, the bond that brought me to ATEEZ and then had me give ATEEZ another chance after BOUNCY caused me some trepidation is on full display here. Their little brother group, xikers, can be seen in the background of The Real by Yunho and Mingi, and they are hyping up ATEEZ like that's their actual day job and not being idols themselves. San's solo performance? In Your Fantasy? Well done, ATEEZ. Well done.

Obviously I'm going to talk about xikers next. And the thing that kills me is that if this was just music to listen to, I would not. I wouldn't. I'm sorry. Neither song is my favorite style or genre. But performed? This is such an incredible group with their live performances just because of how tightly they explosively control the energy. I really just cannot wait to see how they continue to grow and for more and more people to discover them. The fact that I got a little bit bias wrecked by my bias is beside the point. Minjae is a livewire. Sumin is also trying to bias wreck me, still. Proving the mics are live? Cutting his hand up because he wanted to break the glass with his bare hand? The little toss of his head? Also, I saw you, Seeun, with that wink. I'm going to continue to call them the kids until they get their own younger sibling group, but they're not kids anymore. 

And that's another performance of Drowning for me to swoon over. Even though it's literally only a chorus. But Woodz just has that voice, you know? And here's also your daily reminder that this man is a rapper. And I love the part where the actors come out on stage.

Previously, these have all been performers that I've been vocal about loving. So we're going to go with a performance that surprised me. And not just because I didn't review the title track and only the pre-release for that album so it was my first time actually hearing the song. Pookie is kind of the cutest thing? There are a couple of lines that are going to be stuck with me for a while, but this isn't review central right now. This is performance response, and they seem to enjoy this. Which is probably good because that choreography is adorable and if they didn't look like they were enjoying it, that would be unfortunate. But also, the costuming? They look so fluffy, and I love that. But you know what's even better? Their shoes aren't black. That softens the look of the entire costume, which works really well with how soft and ethereal their clothes are.

I wish I could listen to MEOVV. The thing that won me over about them is that even when it wasn't their part, most of the others were singing along. Which explains the hand mics because they needed them otherwise. But that's so endearing, you know? And I don't know why they remind me so much of BLACKPINK. Other than the obvious reason. Which is Teddy. But they're genuinely just impressive, which annoys me every time I find something new I like about them. But, next December, I'll get to listen to my heart's content.

Also, shout-out to Allen's flip during Cravity's performance.

Well, that's the first day of my first music show coverage. Let me know if there's anything you'd like to hear my thoughts on, performance or a win, even if I already talked about it because I can always go into more depth.

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed those performances half as much as I did!

Day 2