Nicknamed the “Korean Grammys,” the 38th Golden Disc Awards will take place on Jan. 6 in Jakarta, Indonesia, to honor the passion and talent that shone bright in the world of K-pop during the year of 2023.

Organized by the JoongAng Group, the Golden Disc Awards is considered one of the most prestigious awards in Korea with its unique format where dozens of nominees and multiple winners are chosen for three main categories — music, album and rookie of the year.

In this series, Golden 2023, the Korea JoongAng Daily’s entertainment arm Celeb Confirmed looks at K-pop’s biggest and brightest stars who are potential nominees, and their achievements this year.

Knock, knock. Who’s there? It’s the BoyNextDoor. The BoyNextDoor who? The BoyNextDoor ready to open peoples’ hearts with an easy-going, casual vibe never before seen in a HYBE boy band.

BoyNextDoor debuted on May 30 as the first new boy band to come from KOZ Entertainment, a K-pop agency founded by singer and producer Zico in November 2018, with a namesake theme of approaching the public with a casual, friendly and young vibe like “the boy next door.”

Six members make up the band: Sungho, Riwoo, Jaehyun, Taesan, Leehan and Woonhak.

Having been produced by Zico, who had debuted as part of hip-hop boy band Block B, and coming from HYBE — whose boy bands BTS, Tomorrow X Together and Enhypen have been known for their masculine, strong and mystical approach to music —, the audience anticipated that BoyNextDoor would be another hip-hop-based crew with a touch of darkness.

Unexpected they may have been, but subpar they certainly were not. BoyNextDoor managed to land its first album on the Billboard 100 albums chart just 112 days after its debut and nabbed Rookie of the Year awards and nominations at major ceremonies in Korea.

BoyNextDoor has become one of the most anticipated boy bands of 2023, vying for more awards and recognitions to come its way.

“WHO!” is BoyNextDoor?

BoyNextDoor released its debut single “WHO!” on May 30 and its first EP “WHY..” on Sept. 4.

“WHO!” sold 110,442 copies within the first week of its release, a number that jumped four times for its first album “WHY..,” which sold 449,218 copies in its first week.

All three songs on the single “WHO!” — “But I Like You,” “One and Only” and “Serenade” — surpassed 100,000 streams on Spotify on the first day of release. The number of streams for all songs combined on Spotify came to over 2.6 million after a week and gave over 300,000 followers to the platform.

With its six-track EP “WHY..,” BoyNextDoor landed itself on the Billboard 200 albums chart within just three months of its debut and also had three of the album’s songs on Apple Music’s Top 100 chart.

The band has been honored with the K Global Super Rookie Award at the 2023 K Global Heart Dream Awards, the Hottest Award at The Fact Music Awards and the Super Rookie of the Year at the Supersound Festival. It has also been nominated for the Best New Male Artist at the 2023 MAMA Awards.

BoyNextDoor "WHO!" (May 30, 2023)

• First-week album sales of "WHO!": 110,442

• First-week streaming of "WHO!" on Spotify: 2.6 million

• Music video views for lead track "One and Only" on YouTube: 25,348,216 (as of Nov. 27)

• Major nominations: 2023 MAMA Awards (Best New Male Artist)

BoyNextDoor "WHY.." (Sept. 4, 2023)

• First-week album sales of "WHY..": 449,218

• Music video views for lead track "But Sometimes" on YouTube: 32,172,581 (as of Nov. 27)

• Other: No. 162 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, 112 days after its debut

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]