Chapter 69
In truth, the three grand prizes were what mattered most at the WMA.
Artist of the Year.
Song of the Year.
Album of the Year.
They were prestigious awards that only the artists who had performed best that year could receive.
Quite a few idols had to leave the entertainment industry without even coming close to these grand prizes. That was true even of idols who had debuted under major agencies or repeatedly topped the charts.
Even famous idols whose names any random person on the street would recognize often retired without ever receiving a WMA grand prize.
[The WMA grand-prize favorites at present]
Artist of the Year—Seo Siyeon
Song of the Year—glassy sky
Album of the Year—our golden years
It probably won't change from this, right?
As in other years, predicting this year's grand-prize winners was incredibly easy.
That was because Seo Siyeon, the undisputed No. 1, existed.
If Seo Siyeon's full-length album, scheduled for release next week, had come out even a month earlier, it seemed entirely possible that she might have taken all three.
That was how overwhelmingly good Siyeon had been all year.
So much so that the public had forgotten she was only nine years old and currently an orphan.
Even hardcore music aficionados had warmly welcomed Seo Siyeon's presence.
Because they were looking forward to seeing a solo artist rather than an idol win a grand prize for the first time in a long while.
And so.
“Song of the Year. Seo Siyeon's Goodbye, My Four Seasons! Congratulations!”
They couldn't help questioning the prediction when it went awry from the very first award.
-Why isn't this glassy sky?
* * *
In truth, I wasn't particularly hung up on which awards I received.
Of course, it was nice to receive them. It felt good, and I could gain some additional fame.
It also made self-promotion easier when introducing myself somewhere: ‘I'm so-and-so, the winner of such-and-such award.’
But when it came to an award's prestige or tier, I suppose you could say I didn't care much which one I received.
I'd been that way consistently since my previous life.
So, honestly, if they gave me no grand prizes—or just one?
I was still prepared to accept that without complaint. After all, where else could I receive a WMA grand prize, an award that most people dreamed of winning even once?
It was impressive enough to boast about as a lifetime achievement.
However. This was a different story.
“Seo Siyeon's Goodbye, My Four Seasons! Congratulations.”
“……”
“Siyeon! Congratulations!”
“G-Go out there!”
The Blooming members sitting beside me had smiles on their faces and were congratulating me aloud, but by now I had known them for quite some time.
Because we'd been through so much together, I could see the disappointment hidden behind those smiles.
The year's No. 1 song was glassy sky. It was an overwhelming No. 1 even by streaming numbers.
Everyone—me, Blooming, and even the other idols in attendance—had thought glassy sky would win Song of the Year.
Because the numbers were overwhelming.
There wasn't a song that could even compete.
Yet Song of the Year went to Goodbye, My Four Seasons.
Although I had won a grand prize, this meant that at this ceremony Blooming had won Band of the Year, Band Music of the Year, and Top Ten of the Year, yet ultimately failed to win a grand prize.
Honestly, how often did a chance like this come along for Blooming?
When would it come again? It might never.
That was why, apart from my own award, I felt upset that Blooming—the group I loved and produced—hadn't won a grand prize.
Even so, I stood up with a smile.
There was no benefit to showing my displeasure here, and since I had won the grand prize, I wasn't personally unhappy, anyway.
I was just a little uneasy.
“Having the honor of receiving such a prestigious award here today…”
I recited the acceptance speech I'd prepared in advance, a little under a minute long, exactly as written.
My expression was somewhat stiff, perhaps because my displeasure had shown through during that process… but my expression had always been stiff to begin with.
And after already performing on two stages, I was honestly exhausted.
I'd only performed once a day on Singerstar, but this was my first time doing two stages at the WMA, and I could feel my lack of stamina in every inch of my body.
‘I should put a treadmill in the studio and start exercising regularly.’
* * *
Naturally, when glassy sky failed to win Song of the Year, domestic music communities erupted.
Starting with accusations that the WMA had rigged the results, quite a few people said they couldn't understand how this had happened at all.
Amid all that confusion, one post received countless upvotes and rose to become a popular post.
[The reason glassy sky didn't get Song of the Year is simple]
The WMA itself is a playground for the Big Three entertainment companies. Everyone in this scene knows that the ceremony favors artists from the Big Three, whether openly or behind the scenes.
Even so, they couldn't deny Seo Siyeon Song of the Year. Otherwise, the rigging would be fucking obvious.
From their perspective, it was fine to let Seo Siyeon win. She didn't overlap with their market share much, since she was a soloist.
Unlike soloist Seo Siyeon, Blooming is a group. And not just any group—it's made up of insanely pretty heiresses from loaded families.
Of course the Big Three would be sweating bullets. If things continued like this, Blooming would obviously suck up a fucking huge chunk of their girl-group fanbase.
If Blooming also won the grand prize here and drew even more attention, there was no telling how high they might soar, so they made sure Blooming couldn't win one at all.
Honestly, since Seo Siyeon did win one, the decision wasn't so outrageous that people couldn't accept it… Blooming's snub will probably be buried under everything else.
-The Big Three are seriously petty too.
-This is exactly it. Spot-on.
-They've always grown by monopolizing shit like this, lol. No way they'd change now.
-Holy shit, was this what was going on?
-I hope this gets spread to other communities too.
↳It's probably already being reposted like fucking crazy.
-Could they possibly not give Seo Siyeon Artist of the Year?
↳They're not that stupid.
↳No way. Yeah, then it would be blatantly rigged.
↳For real, it'd probably make the nine o'clock news.
* * *
“Album of the Year! RPS's our golden years! Congratulations.”
Next came Album of the Year.
As expected, our golden years, which had sold 2.5 million copies, won Album of the Year.
You might not have a feel for how big 2.5 million was, but Starlight had barely sold one million, while Blooming had sold 100,000.
That was twenty-five times what Blooming had sold for this single album.
It wasn't unusual for male idols' albums to sell more than twice as well as female idols' albums, so you could just take it in stride.
Even accounting for that, RPS was a group showing insane growth.
Considering that their album released last year had sold just under one million copies in its first week… it was easy to see how much of an impact their Billboard results had made.
I applauded with a faint smile.
Regardless of my personal feelings, the more successful they were, the more rapidly K-pop would globalize, so as a composer, I couldn't call it a bad thing.
Overseas K-pop fandoms act much like domestic J-pop fandoms: the largest among non-mainstream fandoms, with an insane level of unity and loyalty.
The fandom RPS had built would come straight back to me or Blooming. If not, it would go to the idols of Bluesky Entertainment, which would be established in the future.
Still, the Big Three's behavior was a little infuriating.
Their intention in denying Blooming the grand prize was painfully obvious.
I glanced around and met Saki's sullen gaze. FYG had to settle for winning only Top Ten this time.
She probably wasn't feeling very good.
When she gave me a little wave, I returned it with a small wave of my own.
Soon afterward, RPS finished its acceptance speech onstage and returned to its seats.
“Then… next is the award for the artist who put on the most dazzling performance this year, right?”
“That's right! Let's see which nominees made it here! Check with your own eyes!”
Five names appeared on the screen.
‘Starlight,’ which showed its peak performance this year.
‘RPS,’ which is writing the history of K-pop.
‘FYG,’ the ruler of the era, still showing powerful performances.
‘Bad Monster,’ the spring breeze of K-pop that appeared like a comet.
And ‘little musician Seo Siyeon,’ who showcases music with a charm all her own.
“These are the nominees for this WMA Artist of the Year award!”