Since we’re nearing the end of the year, it’s time to look back at all of the releases of 2021. You guessed it, we’re back with our very own The K M.E.A.L. Awards. It was tough choosing the winner of each category, but we made it and we love to share it with you.
Without further ado, here are the winners of The K M.E.A.L. Awards 2021!
The Rookies
Rookie GG of the Year
Pixy
HOT ISSUE
TRI.BE
Purple Kiss
Lightsum
We chose PIXY for Rookie Girl Group of the year because of their amazing concept and fantastic music. They have come out with some really cool tracks and they really stood out this year.
Rookie BG of the Year
Kingdom
T1410
EPEX
BLITZERS
Ciipher
Kingdom is another example of a great, one of a kind concept and brilliant music to go along with it. All of the different kings have an intriguing backstory and we can’t wait to see where they go from here.
Debut of the Year
Kingdom
PIXY
TRI.BE
EPEX
T1410
This was a tight race between the two winning rookie groups of the year. However, in the end we decided to give it to Kingdom because they released three solid mini-albums that blew us away from start to finish.
Collabs and Units
Best Collab
DPR LIVE ft. Beenzino, Hwa Sa – ‘Hula Hoops’
Soyeon, Lee Young Ji and Bibi – ‘Is this bad b****** number?’
Gaeko & Kwon Jin-Ah – ‘I feel like’
BTS & Coldplay – ‘My Universe’
Moon Jong Up ft. Moon Sujin – ‘Find’
The entire ‘IITE COOL’ album was super dope and this, very unexpected collab had us vibing from the very first second.
Best Sub-Unit of the Year
WJSN The Black
SUJU D&E
E’LAST U
Day 6 (Even of day)
The girls from WJSN The Black were absolutely outstanding! Their single album ‘My Attitude’ was super cool and the members did a fantastic job in the music video. It was brilliant to watch.
Summer Song of the Year
TWICE – ‘Alcohol-Free’
Jeon Soyeon – ‘Beam Beam’
STAYC – ‘ASAP’
Taeyeon – ‘Weekend’
NCT Dream – ‘Hello Future’
Hyolyn&Dasom – ‘Summer or Summer’
It wouldn’t be summer without a TWICE hit. This year they released the hit single ‘Alcohol-Free’. If you need an absolute vibe, this is it!
Choreographies
Best Choreography of the Year – Male Group
Stray Kids – ‘Thunderous’
SHINee – ‘Don’t Call Me’
ATEEZ – ‘Zero: Fever Part.2’
MONSTA X – ‘Gambler’
VERIVERY – ‘Get away’
ENHYPEN – ‘Drunk-Dazed’
The choreography for ‘Thunderous’ by Stray Kids is strong, impactful and full of neat point changes. It was a hard decision, but they’re the well-deserved winners of this category.
Best Choreography of the Year – Female
PIXY – ‘Wings’
TWICE – ‘Alcohol-free’
ITZY – ‘In The Morning (MAFIA)’
STAYC – ‘ASAP’
LOONA – ‘Paint the town’
Dreamcatcher – ‘Odd Eye’
The choreography for ‘Wings’ is insane and requires flexibility and athleticism.
Genres
Best R&B release of the Year
Dvwn – ‘It’s Not Your Fault‘
THAMA – ‘Don’t Die Colors’
Chancellor – ‘Chancellor’ / ‘Behind You’
Hoody – ‘D-Day’
MRSHLL – ‘Metamorphosis’
Heize – ‘HAPPEN’
‘It’s Not Your Fault’ by Dvwn was a very impactful release. It was filled with raw emotions and remained one of our favorite releases this year.
Best Hip-Hop Release of the Year
GIRIBOY – ‘Avante’ / ‘Spacetime & So What’
CL – ‘SPICY’
DPR LIVE – ‘IITE COOL’
BLOO – ‘BLOO IN WONDERLAND 2’
Kid Milli – ‘Cliché’
BIG Naughty – ‘Pocket list’
Verbal Jint – ‘Inflection Point’
GIRIBOY’s releases were intense, emotional and honest. We were absolutely blown away and it’s a well-deserved win.
Best Indie Release of the Year
Leeheesang – ‘Boyhood 19’ (folk)
Meaningful Stone – ‘Cobalt’ (Rock)
Western Kite – ‘Ultraviolet!’ (Psychedelic Rock)
Leesangsoon – ‘Leesangsoon’ (folk)
Lim Soo Yeon – ‘Oasis Bay ½’ (folk)
Ahn Dayoung – ‘Burning Letter’ (Alt Rock)
Nerd Connection – ‘New Century Masterpiece Cinema’ (Rock)
This was a tough decision. ‘Boyhood 19’ by Leeheesang ended up winning because of its wholesome storytelling, coherent theme and wonderful instrumentation.
Best Pop Band
Hoppipolla
CNBLUE
Day 6
N.Flying
ONEWE
The band Hoppipolla came out with the album ‘And Then There Was Us’ and it was a stunning release. The title track completely blew us away.
Soloists
Best Male Soloist/ Popular Soloist
WOODZ
Baekhyun
Kang Daniel
B.I
Wonho
Kai
D.O
Woodz continues to rock his way into our hearts with his releases and this year was no different. He keeps innovating and finetuning his sound and we love it.
Best Female Soloist /Popular Soloist
IU
Hyuna
Sunmi
Chungha
Heize
Lee Hi
‘LILAC’ was one of our favorite albums of the year. IU did a fantastic job and ‘My sea’ had us in an emotional chokehold for a good while.
Best Groups
Best Boy Group
TXT
NCT 127
BTS
ATEEZ
Stray Kids
SHINee
MONSTA X
Pentagon
This was definitely TXT’s year. Their releases had the entire K-pop community obsessed with its original pop rock sound.
Best Girl Group
ITZY
TWICE
MAMAMOO
STAYC
Loona
Weeekly
Dreamcatcher
Aespa
The girls from ITZY had a great year and their releases were absolute bops. They stuck to their concept and continue to excel during performances.
Best Album
Best Pop Song of the Year
TXT – ‘Lovesong’
Enhypen – ‘Drunk-Dazed’
TWICE – ‘The Feels’
BTS – ‘Permission to Dance’
NCT Dream – ‘Hot Sauce’
StayC – ‘STEREOTYPE’
Weeekly – ‘After School’
LOONA – ‘Paint the town’
Stray Kids – ‘Thunderous’
ITZY – ‘In The Morning (MAFIA)’
This was one of the toughest decisions of them all since there were so many amazing releases this year. However, TXT shined and it would be impossible not to give it to them.
Best album of the Year (pop)
TXT – ‘The Chaos Chapter: Freeze’
NCT 127 – ‘Sticker’
Twice – ‘Taste of Love’
2PM – ‘MUST’
AKMU – ‘Next Episode’
Stray Kids- ‘No Easy’
StayC – ‘Stereotype’
TXT’s album ‘The Chaos Chapter: Freeze’ had so many amazing songs! ‘Dear Sputnik’ and ‘Frost’ are still on our playlist rotations and are major vibes. The members did an incredible job this year and it’s well deserved.
That’s it for this year’s The K M.E.A.L. Awards! The lists you see are the shortened versions of every release we scored. We spent a lot of time and effort in this to make it as fair as possible. If you want to read our reviews for any of the albums, you can use the search bar or click on the tags.
Congratulations to all the winners!
If you want to take a look at last year’s winners, you can click here.