Daesang Decoded: K-pop's Top Trophy, From Byun Jin-sub to Stray Kids

On January 10, at the Taipei Dome in Taiwan, the Golden Disc Awards handed out three daesangs in one night for the first time in the show's history, Namane's blog reported. A daesang is the grand prize at a Korean awards show: the trophy saved for the end of the night and still the most prestigious one there, Yahoo's K-pop explainer says.

The three went in three directions. Stray Kids took Album of the Year for KARMA, G-Dragon won Song of the Year for "HOME SWEET HOME," and Jennie won Artist of the Year, a daesang category created new for the 40th ceremony, Namane's blog reported.

What it means

Daesang translates as "grand prize," Yahoo's explainer says. The rank just below it is the bonsang, or "main prize." The gap is about scarcity. A ceremony names a handful of bonsang winners, but the daesang is the single biggest prize, the one with more impact, according to Yahoo.

ClubKpop's explainer calls the daesang the highest honor an artist can receive and winning one a career-defining achievement. The usual categories are Artist of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year. ClubKpop is also kind to the bonsang: it isn't the top prize, but it still marks major success.

The word also splits into variants. At the 29th Seoul Music Awards there were two grand prizes, an Album Daesang for BTS and a Digital Daesang for Taeyeon, Wikipedia's Seoul Music Awards page says. The Golden Disc Awards' new Artist of the Year prize adds one more flavor.

What does a daesang reward? Yahoo says it reflects how well an artist's records did that year and how many copies sold, physically and digitally. Each show does the math its own way. The Seoul Music Awards combine music sales, popular votes and expert judges, according to Wikipedia. The Melon Music Awards use Melon platform digital data, online voting and judges' evaluation, Wikipedia's Melon Music Awards page says. The Golden Disc Awards count albums and digital songs with the Circle Music Chart (formerly Gaon) as the official data source, and the Hanteo Music Awards score their Grand Prize 50% Hanteo Global score, 20% global voting and 30% judging, Namane's blog reported.

The word isn't limited to music, either. Yahoo's explainer says award shows for K-dramas, Korean variety shows and movies also give out daesangs at their year-end ceremonies.

Where it came from

The explainers gathered for this entry don't say when the word first entered English-language fandom. What they do document is the award shows that made it famous, and one of them has the word right in its name.

The Seoul Music Awards are called in Korean, or Seoul Gayo Daesang in Revised Romanization, and are presented by the newspaper Sports Seoul, Wikipedia says. The first ceremony took place in 1990, and the Grand Prize went to singer Byun Jin-sub.

The Golden Disc Awards are older. Their first ceremony was in 1986, and the show was called the Korea Visual and Records Grand Prize Award until 2001, when it became the Golden Disk Awards, Wikipedia's Golden Disc Awards page says.

The MAMA Awards, formerly the Mnet Asian Music Awards, were first held in Seoul in 1999 and aired on Mnet. They started as the Mnet Music Video Festival, a music video show modeled on the MTV Video Music Awards, and CJ ENM presents them today, Wikipedia's MAMA Awards page says.

The Melon Music Awards, run by Kakao Entertainment through its Melon music store, were a fan-voted online award from 2005 through 2008 and have been held offline in Seoul since 2009, according to Wikipedia.

For a long time the grand prize really was one per show. Wikipedia says the Seoul Music Awards daesang typically goes to a single act. The exceptions were the 9th ceremony, when H.O.T. and Sechs Kies shared it, and the 10th, when Jo Sung-mo and Fin.K.L split it.

In the headlines

Namane's 2026 awards guide is the year's biggest daesang story so far. Its account of the Golden Disc Awards' three-way split shows that a show at its 40th ceremony can still change how many grand prizes it hands out. As of June 26, the guide also noted that the November-December season, which will honor 2026 music, was still largely unannounced.

Kpopping's 2025 awards season tracker works as a map of where last year's daesangs were decided. Its venues ran from Seoul's Gocheok Sky Dome to Hong Kong's Kai Tak Stadium and Kaohsiung National Stadium, which shows how far the ceremonies now travel.

Why it's having a moment

It's almost awards season. Kpopping's tracker shows that last year the run opened with the Korea Grand Music Awards on Nov. 14-15, 2025. MAMA followed on Nov. 28-29 at Kai Tak Stadium, then the Asia Artist Awards on Dec. 6 at Kaohsiung National Stadium, and the Melon Music Awards main ceremony closed it on Dec. 20 at Gocheok Sky Dome.

What changed this year is the count. After the Golden Disc Awards gave out three grand prizes at once, Namane's blog reported, the question every fandom is about to ask has more than one answer.

How to use it (and how not to)

A few lines a fan might actually say:

• "Stray Kids getting the Album of the Year daesang for KARMA is going straight into my year-in-review."
• "A bonsang is great, but we're streaming for the daesang."
• "Wait, was that the Album Daesang or the Digital Daesang?"

Etiquette mostly comes down to being precise. A bonsang is not a daesang, so don't promote one into the other when you're celebrating. Name the show and the category too, because one ceremony can now hand out several grand prizes.

Expect the word to come with homework. ClubKpop notes that, unlike many Western award shows, K-pop awards often include fan voting, and fans organize voting campaigns, streaming goals and social media promotions around them.