For those unaware, Korean Music Awards (KMA) is the most reputed Korean award show where winners are chosen by an elite panel of judges consisting of music critics, radio show producers, academics and industry professionals. The awards began in 2004. KMA has 3 daesangs or grand prize categories namely - Album of the Year, Song of the Year and Musician of the Year. Apart from these there are genre awards spanning - pop, rock, dance and electronic, folk, hip hop, RnB and soul, jazz/crossover and a category for OSTs. Kpop idol groups rarely get a nomination much less a win, so here are the few Kpop groups who have been bestowed with the highest honour.
Daesangs -
- BTS - Musician of the Year Daesang(2018, 2019), SoTY Daesang (2019 -Fake Love, 2021 - Dynamite)
- Big Bang - SoTY Daesang (2016 -Bae Bae)
- Girls Generation - SoTY Daesang (2010 -Gee)
Genre Awards -
- Wonder Girls - Best Dance & Electronic Song (2008 - Tell Me), Best Pop Song (2017 - Why So Lonely)
- Brown Eyed Girls - Best Dance & Electronic Song (2010 - Abracadabra), Best Dance & Electronic Album (2010)
- Miss A - Best Dance & Electronic Song (2011 - Bad Girl Good Girl)
- 2NE1 - Best Dance & Electronic Song (2012 - I Am the Best), Best Dance & Electronic Album (2011)
- f(x) - Best Dance & Electronic Song (2013 - Electric Shock)
- Exo - Best Dance & Electronic Song (2014 - Growl)
- Big Bang - Best Pop Song (2016 - Loser)
- Red Velvet - Best Pop Song (2018 - Red Flavor)
- BTS - Best Pop Song (2019 - Fake Love), Best Pop Song (2021 - Dynamite)
Some facts -
- BTS has won the most daesangs across all Korean artists with 4 daesangs in their name.
- BTS and Kiha & The Faces have won the most KMAs at 6 awards in all (excludes popularity - fan voted award)
Note - Fan voted popularity awards have been excluded from the list above which is only based on judges vote. The entire list can be seen here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Music_Awards
P.S. KMAs were held this year on 28th Feb, 6pm KST.
BTS and OMG were the idol groups nominated for the 2021 KMAs. BTS won SoTY daesang and Best Pop Song award for Dynamite.