K-pop boy group Exo won the grand prize at the Seoul Music Awards held on Thursday night at Olympic Park, located in Songpa District, southeastern Seoul.
By receiving the top prize, the 10-member boy group set a record as the first K-pop act to nab the highest honor from the annual music festival for three years in a row.
Previously, Seo Taji and Boys nabbed the grand prize in 1992 and 1993 and Girls’ Generation took home the trophy in 2010 and 2011, but no K-pop acts won it for three consecutive years.
Meanwhile, iKon, Seventeen and GFriend received newbie awards at this year’s event while Big Bang won Song of the Year with “Bang Bang Bang” and singer BoA received the Best Album of the Year title with her eighth regular album, “Kiss My Lips.”
Kim Jun-su, a member of the K-pop trio JYJ, received the Popularity Award.
By Sung So-young
![On February 19, nurses affiliated with the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United protest outside USC Keck Hospital in Lincoln Heights over healthcare plan revisions and working conditions. After contract negotiations with hospital management broke down, the union began a seven-day strike that day. [Sangjin Kim, The Korea Daily]](https://www.koreadailyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/0223-strike-100x70.jpg "Monthlong Kaiser strike causes treatment delays, pharmacy backlog")
