| The members of K-pop girl group NewJeans pose after winning a grand prize at the 2022 Asia Artist Awards (AAA) in Nagoya, Japan, Tuesday. Courtesy of ADOR |
By Dong Sun-hwa
K-pop girl group NewJeans has won big at the 2022 Asia Artist Awards (AAA), only four months after making its official debut.
The five-piece act, consisting of Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin and Hyein, received one of the six grand prizes ― Performance of the Year ― and the Rookie of the Year award during the awards ceremony that took place at Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Japan, Tuesday. Five other grand prizes went to K-pop boy bands Seventeen and Stray Kids, girl group IVE, trot singer Lim Young-woong and singer-actor Lee Jun-ho.
“We were happy and honored just to be able to perform at the 2022 AAA, but now we are so thankful to notch a grand prize in addition to the Rookie of the Year award,” NewJeans said in an acceptance speech. “We will showcase more fresh performances in the days ahead, so please give us support.”
This is the third time that NewJeans has won a Rookie of the Year award, following trophies at The Fact Music Awards and Melon Music Awards.
NewJeans is the first girl group launched by ADOR, a label under HYBE that manages K-pop titan BTS. It was formed by Min Hee-jin, who was behind the success of K-pop superstar groups like EXO and f(x) when she was a creative director at SM Entertainment.
After bursting onto the music scene in August with its self-titled debut album, NewJeans has been making waves with all four tracks included in the album ― “Attention,” Hype Boy,” “Cookie” and “Hurt.” “Attention” and “Hype Boy” reached 100 million streams on Spotify, the world's largest music streaming platform, and “Cookie” was included on the “Best Songs of 2022” list released by The New York Times, Dec. 7.
NewJeans is poised to unleash its new EP, “OMG,” Jan. 2.