Asia Artist Awards 2025

 So, as with the other award show posts, my comments will be found down below, after the performances and the winners. I know. It's me, and I like to ramble, but for these, I'm giving you the stuff you're more likely to be interested in first, and then if you want my rambles, they're at the bottom. 

Anyway, enjoy the performances and congrats to the winners! I'm only listing the music related winners, with two exceptions.

performances

AHOF (Rendezvous)

ALLDAY PROJECT (FAMOUS + ONE MORE TIME)

ASH ISLAND (Don't go + OST)

ATEEZ (Man on Fire + Dance Break + In Your Fantasy)

Cortis (GO! + What You Want)

Cravity (Intro + Lemonade Fever)

IVE (XOXZ + ATTTUDE + 삐빅 (♥beats) + REBEL HEART)

JJ Lin (Bedroom + 修煉愛情+背對背擁抱 (with WOODZ))

KickFlip (Intro (특이점) + My First Love Song)

KiiiKiii (Intro + I DO ME)

Kiss of Life (Maestro of My Heart + Lucky)

Leejunyoung (BOUNCE + BACK)

LE SSERAFIM (Born Fire + Ash + HOT)

MEOVV (BURNING UP + HANDS UP)

Monsta X (Tresspass + LoveKilla + Do What I Want)

NEXZ (Beat-Boxer)

QWER (Intro + Dear)

RIIZE (Intro + Ember to Solar + Fame)

Stray Kids (BLEEP + Walkin On Water + CEREMONY)

TWS (Head Shoulders Knees Toes + OVERDRIVE)

WOODZ (Smashing Concrete + Bridge + Drowning)

xikers (SUPERPOWER (Peak))

Yena (Intro + Being a good girl hurts)

winners

Artist of the Year (Actor) (Daesang): IU

Artist of the Year (Singer) (Daesang): Stray Kids

Song of the Year (Daesang): IVE - REBEL HEART

Album of the Year (Daesang): Stray Kids - KARMA

Stage of the Year (Daesang): ATEEZ

Performance of the Year (Daesang): RIIZE

Music Icon of the Year (Daesang): LE SSERAFIM

Best Artist (Actor): Lee Jun Hyuk, Lim Yoona, Lee Junho, Kim You Jung, Uhm Ji Won, IU, Moon So Ri, Park Bo Gum, Satoh Takeru

Best Artist (Singer): Monsta X, ATEEZ, Woodz, JJ Lin, LE SSERAFIM, IVE, Stray Kids, RIIZE, ALLDAY PROJECT

Best Musician (Group): Kiss of Life, MEOVV, TWS

Best Musician (Solo): Yena, ASH ISLAND, CHANMINA

Best K-pop Record: IVE, Stray Kids, ATEEZ

Best Music Video: MEOVV - HANDS UP

Best OST: Golden (KPop Demon Hunters)

Best Performance: KiiiKiii, Cortis

Best Voice Performance: Arden Cho

Best Band: QWER

Best Producer: 3RACHA (Stray Kids)

Best Choice: Lee Yi Kyung, Hyunjin (Stray Kids), Shuhua (i-dle), Hongjoong (ATEEZ), Kim Chaeon (LE SSERAFIM)

Best New Artist: AHOF, NEXZ, KickFlip

Rookie of the Year (Singer): KiiiKiii, ALLDAY PROJECT, Cortis

Popularity Award (Solo): Lim Young Woong, Yuqi (i-dle)

Popularity Award (Group): Stray Kids, NiziU

New Wave Award (Actor): Yunho (ATEEZ)

New Wave Award (Singer): ALLDAY PROJECT

Emotive Award (Singer): RIIZE

Icon Award (Singer): Cravity

Potential Award: xikers

History of K-pop: Monsta X

Grand Presence of K-pop: Jang Won Young (IVE), Felix (Stray Kids)

Legendary Producer: BUMZU

Legendary K-Pop Master Professional: Seo Hyun Joo (Starship Entertainment)

Legendary Solo: IU, G-Dragon

Legendary Group: BLACKPINK, BTS

final thoughts

That is what we call a list of winners. This is why this one is so long, timewise, and also took me so long to get this one out because as you can see, there's a lot. And I was also waiting for all of the performances to show up. 

So, all those links go to either the artist page or the song review I wrote. Up in the performances, those are all song reviews. In the winners, the majority of them go to the artist page, but if it's because of a specific song and I have a review for it, that review is there unless I already have it in the performances. Normally I also would have tagged all of the performing artists, but there's a twenty tag limit. 

I know.

The number of performances is part of the reason why this one in particular is so long, and, again, this one has taken so long because I wanted to make sure that all of the performances were available. And then I slightly forgot about it. 

But, I want to talk about those wins first. Again, I spent most of the time with the singers' awards because as much as I like the actors, I cannot add that many things. So, instead, I included the actors who I know for a fact are also K-Pop related.

The Daesangs list is a good one. We've been seeing a few repeat names for all three of these that I've covered so far, but honestly, that's to be expected. IU of course is amazing, no matter what she's doing, and for the six musical Daesangs, all five groups have done very well this year.

I don't know anything about JJ Lin yet, so I can't comment on his inclusion for the best artist Bonsang, however, I do have to say that it's a testament to Monsta X and the Monbebes that they got one this year. 

I do have to say that with Golden getting best OST, the following Monday, I wore my Mira shirt to celebrate it, and I had a kid, probably about ten, look me up and down and ask me if I liked K-Pop Demon Hunters. No, I just wear that shirt for kicks and giggles. Kids.

Also, I'm still laughing that there was a repeat of Han's bathroom shenanigans from last year. 

Obviously, I'm really excited that xikers got an award. I'm confident that one day they'll get a Daesang like ATEEZ got this year, but in the meantime, this was a good set of winners across the board. And I'm genuinely so excited about the Legendary awards because all of them have clearly made huge impacts on the industry. 

Okay, and now it's the performances! The wins are good, but the performances are what I look forward to every year. 

Starting off with my girls, QWER. Now, I'm still not entirely enamored with Dear, but I really enjoy this performance. It's soft and chill vocally, but the instruments have a really good energy to them, but I love their introduction. It's a little bit of a strut, but they just look so good while they're doing it. They're very relaxed and comfortable on stage, which is what I want to see, you know?

The KickFlip performance was really cute. I mean, the introduction was adorable, the choreography and their expressions were cute. The dance break went hard and then it just moved into such a good burst of freed energy. It's such a fun ending.

I kind of love the fact that I get an excuse to watch MEOVV's stages for these. Audio issues notwithstanding (though it sounds like that might have been a common issue across the board, and everyone handled it very professionally), they did an amazing job, even if they had to fight the system. Honestly, I'm so excited to see their careers progress because I think they're going to be titans in a few years.

You really think xikers are going to perform and I'm not going to talk about them? You must be new. They're one of my favorite groups, even though I don't always like the music, because their live performances are incredible. This one is no different. Also, I giggled a little when I heard what I'm pretty sure was Yujun's inner-ear smacking into his mic. Live mics, everyone. I'm so proud of them. Always. 

Well, and there you have it. I finally got around to doing this, not that I didn't want to, but the delay caused some forgetfulness in me. I may also do a post for ACON as well, because that was the really fun part of the event, but I may need someone to request I do it to kick me in the behind for it. Otherwise, if you want thoughts on a specific performance or a win, feel free to ask. Here's your explicit invitation.