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Mark your calenders everyone! The 29th annual Golden Disk Awards are almost upon us and it looks like it’s gearing up to be a good one.

Held at the Mastercard Centre in Beijing, China on the 14th and 15th of January 2015, the Music Industry Association of Korea will be presenting awards to the best of the best. With strong comebacks this year from the veterans, to the debut of some lovely fresh-faced rookie groups, this year’s batch of nominees include a fantastic range of talent.

Up for this year’s Golden Disk Best New Artist are HIGH4, GOT7, Park Bo-ram, WINNER, Akdong Musician, Red Velvet, Eddy Kim and Bernard Park.

Artists up for the grand prize, the Golden Disk Album Daesang, boasts a long list of nominees including: 2NE1, 2PM, Akdong Musician, A Pink, B1A4, B.A.P, Beast, Block B, BTS, CNBlue, Epik High, EXO, f(x), Girls’ Generation, g.o.d, Infinite, Taemin, TaeTiSeo, Taeyang, Teen Top, Toheart, Seo Taiji, VIXX and WINNER.

And nominees for the Golden Disk Digital Daesang include:

2NE1  “Come Back Home”
g.o.d – “The Lone Duckling”
HIGH4 ft. IU – “Not Spring, Love, or Cherry Blossoms”
Girl’s Day – “Something”
Gary ft. Jungin – “Your Scent”
HyunA – “Red”
Kim Dong-ryul How I Am”
Red Velvet – “Happiness”
Park Bo-ram – “You Became Beautiful”
Park Hyo-shin – “Wild Flower”
Block B – “H.E.R”
San E ft. Raina – “A Midsummer Night’s Sweetness”
Seo Taiji – “Sogyeokdong”
Girls’ Generation – “Mr.Mr.”
Soyou ft. Junggigo – “Some”
SISTAR – “Touch My Body”
CNBlue – “Can’t Stop”
IU – “My Old Story”
Akdong Musician – “200%”
EXO – “Overdose”
A Pink – “Mr. Chu”
Ailee – “Don’t Touch Me”
Epik High – “Happen Ending”
WINNER – “Empty”
K.Will – “Day 1″
Taeyang – “Eyes, Nose, Lips”

The entire list of nominees for all categories can be found here.

20140113_seoulbeats_tvxq2The MC’s for the event have also been announced. Hosts will include Leeteuk, Tiffany, Fei, as well as entertainers Kim Sung-Joo and Jeon Hyun-moo. 

Furthermore, in the spirit of award shows, there is of course bound to be some controversy. This year things have started up early when soon after the names of nominees were released, fans were quick to realise that both TVXQ and Super Junior have been omitted from the list. Both groups fit the award criteria as they both released full length albums this year with higher than average sales.

TVXQ’s album Tense released in early 2014 has sold over 300,000 copies, topped the Gaon and Oricon album charts, and the lead single “Something” won seven music award trophies during promotions. Similarly, Super Junior released their 7th studio album Mamacita after a two year hiatus which has sold over 380,000 copies, topped multiple charts and had its title track receive nine trophies during music award promotions. As a result, outraged fans have been trending #JusticeforDBSJ on Twitter.

So readers, are you looking forward to the show? How do you feel about the TVXQ/Super Junior situation?

Update: TVXQ and Super Junior have since been added to the list of nominees and order has been restored in K-pop forums worldwide.

(Golden Disk Awards, JoyNews. Images via SM Entertainment, Golden Disk Awards)