The ‘26th Golden Disk Awards‘ is being heavily criticized for its decision to take the show to Osaka, Japan.
Sponsored by Ilgan Sports and jTBC, the Golden Disk Awards booked the Osaka Kyocera Dome, a decision that many Korean fans failed to understand. When the location was first announced in October, netizens questioned, “It was Koreans who bought the albums, so why is it being held in Japan?” and“Now they’re asking us to go all the way to Japan to watch the show?”
Despite the criticisms, organizers went ahead and set up the show in Japan.
Many continued to complain about the ceremony, arguing that they couldn’t see why Japan was relevant to the awards when sales figures were calculated from Korea only. Additionally, organizers opted for an indoor baseball stadium instead of a regular concert hall, resulting in more expensive tickets.
If fans could afford to go, they’d be buying tickets worth $178 USD a piece. Since the show is held over a course of two days, the price doubles, bringing the total to $356 USD, a hefty number for young wallets. The ticket prices itself have brought about new waves of criticisms about how the show was trying to use the Hallyu wave for their financial benefit.
Although the Golden Disk Awards has a prestigious history of being a ‘fair awards ceremony’ due to its awarding of artists based on album sales, not popularity, many have begun to question that reputation as well. The non-attendance of YG and JYP Entertainment artists as well as the exclusion of JYJ has raised questions of fairness.
The show will still go on, however, and the festivities will broadcast through jTBC on January 21st and 22nd as a Lunar New Year special.