What is Gaon Chart's WE PICK! Awards 2021? Schedule and Top 5 artists awarded
The end of the year marks the era of awarding artists for their merits in the industry over the last year and let's face it, the past couple of years have been difficult on all of us and it is time we appreciated the artists that worked hard for the entertainment of their dedicated fanbase. On December 15, it was announced that Gaon Chart, the official domestic chart that collects data for music streaming and purchase in South Korea, is going to host their new Social Media Awards ceremony called ‘WE PICK! Awards.
According to Choi Gwang-ho, the general manager of Gaon Chart, the award show will be hosted in collaboration with Instagram where an online ceremony will be hosted on Gaon’s official Instagram handle where artists and fans can communicate with one another. The Chart has revealed the Top 5 winners of the 2021 We Pick! Awards and these five artists will attend their individual award ceremonies for five consecutive days. Each day is allotted to one of the Top 5 artists and fans can stream the event on Gaon Charts social media accounts in a live broadcast with the Artist of that day.
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Air date and schedule
December 20: ITZY
December 21: Treasure
December 22: Baek A-yeon (백아연)
December 23: Ahn Jung-yeop Jungyup (정엽)
December 24: Stray Kids
Where to watch
The We Pick! Awards will be aired on all five days starting December 20 to December 24 simultaneously on Gaon Chart’s official Facebook Page - 가온차트-Gaonchart, Facebook’s official Music page -- Music on Facebook -- as well as each artist of the day’s official Facebook page. Find the artist pages of ITZY, Treasure, Baek A-yeon, Jungyup, and Stray Kids here.
2021 Gaon WE PICK! Awards: Top 5
Itzy
The past year has been very eventful for the five-member girl-group from JYPE who seem to have established themselves among top third-generation K-pop acts despite coming from the fourth-generation of K-pop themselves. The year gave us ITZY’s hit single, ‘Mafia In The Morning’ which the girls released in April 2021. They released their first studio album, ‘Crazy in Love’ with the title-track, ‘Loco’ and the album debuted at number 11 on the Billboard 200 which was a new high record for the group. The group is on its way to make its official Japanese debut with an album titled, ‘It'z Itzy’ which releases on December 22.
Treasure
The rookie group that was formed by YG Entertainment in 2019 through its reality-survival program ‘YG Treasure Box’. The 12-member band debuted in 2020 with their single album, ‘The First Step: Chapter One’, which sold over one million copies five months into their career. Treasure released their first full-length album in January 2021 and the album became the rookie group's third No 1 on the Gaon Weekly Album Chart and peaked atop the Gaon Monthly Album Chart for the month of January with tremendous sales heralding the group their ‘Million Seller’. The group has been doing well in Japan too as they lent their voices for TV Tokyo Japanese anime, Black Clover's 13th ending theme song which entered and peaked on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 chart at number 58 and the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart at number 23.
Baek A-yeon
A-yeon initially debuted as a soloist with JYP Entertainment but she moved onto Eden Entertainment soon after her contract with JYPE expired as of 2019. She made her debut as an idol and R&B singer in 2012 and over her career she has released a total of five extended plays and a total of ten singles. As of September 2021, Baek A-yeon released her fifth EP, Observe, with the lead single ‘0%’.
Jungyup
Singer Ahn Jung-yeop known mononymously as Jungyup is K-pop idol and leader of the four-member R&B group, Brown Eyed Soul. Jungyup debuted with the label Next Music with his debut solo album, ‘Thinkin` Back On Me’ in 2008. Jungyup release his fifth studio album, ‘It' Soul Right’ in 2019 which peaked at Number 7 on Gaon’s Daily Album Chart.
Stray Kids
The eight-member group under JYPE is the second artist from the label to be awarded by Gaon Chart. Stray Kids made their debut in 2017 and have been unstoppable ever since. The year 2021 alone saw the group transform their image into “performance leaders” as they won the Idol group survival show, ‘Kingdom: Legendary War’ and then took their first Daesang at the 2021 Asia Artist Awards, becoming the First Fourth-Gen Boy Group to win a grand prize. Stray Kids released their third full-length self-produced album, ‘NOEASY’ with the title track, ‘Thunderous’ with the aim of rejuvenating the genre of ‘Noise Music’ - the term most haters initially used to describe their songs which the group and fanbase now use as a compliment.