The Top 10 Artist List For The “2013 Melon Awards” Have Been Released: Award Season Is Now Full Swing

Who will take home top awards?

Loen Entertainment, in conjunction with MBC Plus Media, released the Top 10 Artist list for the "2013 Melon Awards". The Melon Awards reflect not only the popularity of K-Pop artists, but the performance of their music on the charts. In order to determine the Top 10 Artists, statistics are compiled utilizing eighty percent of an artist's chart sales with twenty percent of online votes. Unlike the "2013 MAMA Awards" which has openly welcomed the addition of international fan votes by creating a multilingual system, voting for the 2013 Melon Awards remains contained to voters in Korea.

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The Top 10 Artist list is a mix of solo artists, male and female groups, as well as a hip hop duo. The most obvious choices, especially to international audiences, are G-Dragon, EXO, SHINee, BEAST, Ailee, IU, and Sistar. Popular hip-hop act Dynamic Duo, ballad duo Davichi, and Superstar K finalists Busker Busker round out the list. Online voter participation for round one reached 1.74 votes. The Top Ten Artists are now entered into a second round of votes, which will occur online until November 13^th.

In addition to the Top 10 Artists, there are numerous other categories. The Best New Artist category features the critically acclaimed hip-hop group BTS, the retro influenced male pop vocalists of History, girl group Ladies Code, alternative indie vocalist Lim Kim, and balladeer Roy Kim. One of the most interesting categories, considering that international audiences are restricted from voting is the Best Global Artist category. Nominees in the Best Global Artist include PSY, EXO, 2NE1, Girls Generation, and Super Junior-M. This category is also a point of interest in that it reflects the battle to dominate the global market, which YG Entertainment and SM Entertainment are most actively engaged in. The complete list of nominees and categories is available on the Melon Award 2013 site.

In a show of commitment to include international audiences, Loen Entertainment will be live streaming the event via their YouTube channel, with viewing availability for audiences worldwide. There will also be support for mobile live streaming of the event. This is in contrast to past "Melon Awards" which had to be viewed via underground streams. The 2013 Melon Awards will be held on November 14^th. Which artists will you be supporting and who do you think be the top award winners?