BTS Wins Daesang And Best Concert Award At 6th Edaily Culture Awards

Feb 26, 2019

The 6th Edaily Culture Awards were held on February 26 to recognize outstanding work in the field of performing arts. The evening’s event took place at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul.

BTS took home both the Daesang (grand prize) and the award for Best Concert for their “Love Yourself” world tour, which began last August. While accepting the award, BTS mentioned their upcoming stadium tour this spring and asked everyone to look forward to it.

Each year, the Edaily Culture Awards names a Daesang winner from one of the recipients in its six categories based on the result of online voting by the judges and the public, as well as an evaluation from the Operations Secretariat of the Edaily Culture Awards.

BTS was given the title this year, and this is the first time that the winner of Best Concert at the Edaily Culture Awards has been awarded the Daesang.

BTS’s leader RM said, “Three years ago, we said that we wanted to win the Best Concert award. First off, I have to definitely thank ARMY who made it so that we even won the Daesang as well. We really didn’t know that we’d win, but I thought a bit about what to say just in case we did.”

“This cultural award ceremony feels fresh and new to me,” he said. “There are many professionals from the culture industry here. This makes me think of a quote by Kim Gu, who said ‘The only thing that I desire is the power of an advanced culture.'” Kim Gu was a leader of the Korean independence movement during the colonial period and later an activist who called for the reunification of Korea.

RM explained, “I think that culture is the strongest intangible power, more so than any physical power, and it has the ability to break down all barriers. I’m a fan and a consumer of not only music, the field that I work in, but also traditional music, musicals, drama, plays, dance, and more. I believe that this culture is alive by my side and that while enjoying this culture, a human becomes more human. Also, it is a great source of inspiration for my music, and I think of it as having the power to make a human really human.”

He continued, “We may be the only ones here on this honorable stage, but I hope you’ll remember that in the space around us there is not only us as the artists but also the many staff members who help us, and most importantly, all our fans and the consumers who love and consume this culture. We’re here among such amazing professionals from the culture industry, and I’m not sure if we deserve to be receiving this award. However, we’ll take this as a message to try harder and spread the power of Korea’s culture around the world. We’ll be humbler and work hard. Thank you.”

Check out the full list of winners below!

Grand Prize: Concert category, BTS
Play Category, Top Prize: “Martyr” (Baeksu Theater Company)
Classic Category, Top Prize: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra performance in Korea (Vincero Arts Management & Entertainment)
Dance Category, Top Prize: Ballet “The Love of Chun Hyang” (Universal Ballet)
Traditional Music Category, Top Prize: Seo Young Ho’s “Night of the Sanjo”
Musical Category, Top Prize: “The Man Who Laughs” (EMK Musical Company)
Concert Category, Top Prize: BTS’s world tour “Love Yourself”
Lifetime Achievement Award: Lee Jong Deok
Frontier Award: Producer Park Myung Sung of Seensee Company