All the hot and trending girl groups — aespa, IVE, NewJeans, STAYC and KISS OF LIFE — will be joining this year's Melon Music Awards (MMA), the organizer Kakao Entertainment said Wednesday.

It will be aespa and rookie girl group KISS OF LIFE's first time participating and performing at the MMA, while IVE, NewJeans and STAYC have done both at the last year's MMA.

Melon Music Awards, also known by its acronym MMA, is Melon's yearly music award ceremony that kicked off in 2009. Melon is Korea's largest domestic online music service.

This year's MMA will be held at the Inspire Arena in Incheon, a dedicated K-pop performance stadium that can seat up to 15,000 people.

Last year, IVE took home four trophies, winning the Song of the Year award with "Love Dive" (2022), the Top 10 Artists award, Best New Artist and Best Female Group award, while NewJeans won the Top 10 Artists award and the Best New Artist award.

STAYC was the winner of last year's Global Rising Artist award.

Rookie girl group KISS OF LIFE with members Julie, Natty, Belle and Haneul, debuted in July with its first EP "KISS OF LIFE," receiving positive reviews from fans in Korea and abroad. The group dropped its second EP "Born to be XX" on Nov. 8.

Popular boy bands BOYNEXTDOOR, ZEROBASEONE, RIIZE and NCT DREAM will also be joining this year's MMA.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]