Girl group NewJeans took home six prizes at the 2023 Asia Artist Awards in the Philippines (2023 AAA) on Thursday, proving its power in the K-pop scene.

This year’s 2023 AAA was hosted by Star News and held at the Philippine Arena in the Philippines on Thursday, celebrating this year’s K-pop, K-dramas and K-movies. Seven grand prizes — Song of the Year, Artist of the Year, Performance of the Year, Album of the Year, Stage of the Year, Fandom of the Year and Actor of the Year — were presented, along with 20 other awards.

NewJeans won two of the seven grand prizes — Song of the Year and Artist of the Year — along with four other honors: the Fabulous Award, Best Choice Award, Asia Celebrity Award and Hot Trend Award.

“Standing on the stage today is really like a dream to us, and I know that this wouldn’t have been possible without all these amazing artists sitting down before us,” Danielle of NewJeans said after receiving Song of the Year for the track “Ditto.” “There are so many people we look up to, and we are so grateful to be standing on this stage with them.”

Seventeen won Album of the Year for its tenth EP, “FML,” which was released on April 24.

“If it weren’t for Carat, we wouldn’t have gotten this award,” Hoshi of Seventeen said. Carat is the official name of Seventeen’s fan club.

“We will showcase amazing performances and activities fitting the name as a grand prize winner next year, with Jeonghan and S.Coups joining us upon their full recovery from their injuries,” Seungkwan said.

S.Coups and Jeonghan recently paused their activities due to health issues.

Seventeen subunit BSS also took home one of the grand prizes, Performance of the Year.

“We wouldn’t have won the grand prize as BSS if it wasn’t for Young-ji featuring the song,” DK said. “We would like to give the honor to Young-ji.”

Stray Kids took home Stage of the Year, along with Best Creator from the ceremony.

“This is a really big award that we have achieved, it’s all thanks to you guys out there,” Stray Kids’ Bangchan said. “I would also like to dedicate this award to, [because] the name of the award is ‘stage,’ every artist here.”

“If we put in 99 percent or 50 percent, like how many percentages into the stage, we feel like the fans out there complete it and make it to 100 percent,” Bangchan added.

Fandom of the Year went to trot singer Lim Young-woong, and Actor of the Year went to singer and actor Lee Jun-ho.

A number of K-pop artists took the stage for performances during the event, including NewJeans, Kwon Eun-bi, Le Sserafim, ZeroBaseOne and BSS.

Kang Daniel, IVE’s Jang Won-young and ZeroBaseOne’s Sung Han-bin hosted the ceremony.

Many Korean actors, including actor Ahn Hyo-Seop, Kim Seon-ho and Moon Ga-young also attended in celebration of this year’s K-dramas and K-movies.

The 2023 AAA was broadcast live on Weverse, Hulu for Japanese viewers and Lazada Philippines.

To find out more about K-pop Artist and Korean Actors, visit Celeb Confirmed!


BY KIM JI-YE [kim.jiye@joongang.co.kr]