It has been a week since the start of 2021, and while a majority of end of year music awards and ceremonies have ended, the Golden Disc Awards is ready to set off the finale. As all major music awards and ceremonies were carried out even in midst of the unprecedented pandemic situation, the decision to go ahead with such plans remains regretful.
As the spread of COVID-19 in South Korea got worse day by day at the end of last year, attention was focused on whether the year-end music award ceremonies will be held. However, despite all concerns, none of Korea’s major award ceremonies including the three main broadcasting companies, 2020 Melon Music Awards (MMA), and 2020 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) chose to cancel their event.
Instead of canceling or postponing their schedules, the award ceremonies decided to force through the event under the government’s preventive protocols, without audiences. In order to minimize contact between artists, they also started to pre-record each stage.
Nevertheless, there were constant voices of concern in the process.
In the case of 2020 MAMA, there was a heated debate over the effectiveness of the attempt to prevent the disease. People pointed out that the fluorescent high heels and silver full-length tights were not appropriate for the staff deployed to prevent COVID-19. Furthermore, opinions were raised that merely spraying disinfectant ahead of the winners did not have much effect in preventing COVID-19, and only seemed as if they were only “pretending” to prevent it.
KBS2’s Song Festival also went up in chaos as Golden Child’s Bong Jae Hyun was confirmed with COVID-19 and have been reported to share routes with NCT and SEVENTEEN. While all members were tested negative on the day of the event, S.Coups was unable to get on stage as his results were delayed.
The problem is that even with such unpredictable variables, and the dangers of group infection, all events forced through to proceed. Fortunately, no cases of chain infection have arisen in these K-Pop award ceremonies. However, it is uncertain whether this year’s event will come to a successful conclusion.
The 35th Golden Disc Awards will be held amongst these times at 3.50 p.m. KST on September 10th. It is hoped that both the ceremonies and the pandemic will come to a complete end.
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[…] been a week since 2021 started. The majority of the year-end music awards and ceremonies have already ended despite the current situation’s struggle. However, the regrets of deciding on going ahead […]