The Gayo Music Festival have always been dubbed as the Cannes of K-Pop. The infamous name always sends a signal that the award season have started and it is that time of the year again for petty fanwars and such about who really deserves the Grand Prize (Daesang).

Introduction

Tonight, the 12th Gayo Music Festival is coming to an end. It has been an hectic journey for us to sail in the ocean of new releases. Among a pool of more than 120 songs, this year jury has carefully selected what they think are the best five. This includes releases from October 1 to October 29. We would like to thank you for attending with us this ceremony and for entrusting our Jury’s decision. The Gayo Music Festival Organizing Committee handed over this responsibility to three music critics, chosen for their unbiased and professional approach: 108 Ent, Haruko and Mozart Reviews.

The Gayo Music Festival started in 2010. The first ever winner being SHINee for Hello. Since then more than 10 more winners have been revealed annually. This includes: Girls Generation, Ailee, Seo Taiji, f(x), BTS, A.C.E, Stray Kids, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, and Golden Child. These winners have been sucessful too in the Awards Circuit, as the GMF almost always sucessfully predicts the last spot for the INSIDER Awards.

Who will follow the glorious path of the previous nominees? Time to find it out.

Grand Prix

aespa

As the latest ship of the SM arsenal, aespa has been controversial ever since pre-debut. But the thoughts of machines taking over the k-pop industry faded away when they dropped their astonishing debut Black Mamba. Their following single Next Level was a major hit and is still charting to this day but has polarized the critics: genius or scam? Hot topic. In fact, aespa was waiting for universal success. It seems Savage is a good shot at it.

Leading their first mini-album, Savage continues the futuristic universe in which aespa lives in. Aes, kwangya and naevis will soon all be part of our vocabulary. The track is an electronic experiment. With strong rap parts and smooth vocal chants, it follows the recipe SM has developped throughout the years. Winter and Ningning’s crystal clear vocals are sparingly layered to create a fun yet dangerous atmosphere. It is evenly divided between metallic squeaks and exquisite R&B melodies. The Cherry on top is a climactic dance break, with a fine cadence and sense of rythm.

Chancellor & Gaeko

Whilst he has released songs since 18th September 2015 with SON E GA featuring Bumkey, Chancellor has been active since 2010. Chancellor has quite a history throughout his career as both being a former member of hip-hop group and a composer Oneway, soloist, and being the co-founding and former member of Duble Sidekick (has composed for B1A4, B.A.P, Apink, Sistar, and more!). Since his departure, he has taken a backseat in the form of releasing a single once a year as well as composing works such as Kang Daniel’s 2U in 2020 as well as Paranoia in 2021. With the latest release of his album titled after his stage name, 5 years(!) since his first album, Chancellor makes his comeback a few months after signing with Kang Daniel’s label KONNECT Entertainment with the song Midnight.

With precedent Korean acts that hopping on the retro trend since late last year, K-pop welcomes a new challenge: Chancellor with his song Midnight featuring rapper Dynamic Duo’s Gaeko. This song is an interesting case that feels incredibly authentic in its sound. Chancellor has a rich distinct voice that sounds very much like the iconic Michael Jackson. Pair it up with the heavy retro elements, and you got 80s nostalgia. And it works so darn well. Thanks to its tightly structured production, the song never wavers and instead focuses on throwing down retro punches at you. Every rhythmic beat is satisfying. Every doses of trumpets that further compliments the exuberant song is satisfying. Every line Chancellor delivers is heavenly (and it’s even more incredible when his voice goes sky-high at the bridge). Midnight is a gift for those who grew up listening to Michael Jackson, but even if you remove nostalgia out of the equation, its a song that will definitely satisfy retro fans (such as myself!).

DreamNote

DreamNote debuted back in November 2018 under iMe Korea, and never took off. Their songs were almost always brushed off, with hardly any praise given to their music. As several other K-Pop groups stuck in the long-time rookie zone, they bounced between concepts, from cute to retro, but never sticking. However, they gained some loyal fans in the process, with minor success garnered by Hakuna Matata prior to a forced hiatus due to the global pandemic. Finally returning with the single Ghost.

Over the last past few years, Dreamcatcher’s horror rock concept has gained them several fans and accolades. Thus, a stream of new girl groups such as Pink Fantasy and Rolling Quartz have opted to compete in this emerging market. With Ghost, DreamNote throw their hat in the ring.

IU

Nation’s Little Sister IU has proven herself as the best female soloist over the years. Her voice is cherished by millions of people and each new release tops the charts with ease. She has an history of making hits such as Good Day or Palette – two of the most iconic songs of all time. Jazz, Ballad, Pop, she has experimented a large variety of genres throughout her career but her recent direction is a sort of dreamy synthpop, consecrated in her 5th album Lilac. IU choses to continue this pastel-tainted route with her newest single Strawberry Moon.

Strawberry Moon is the warmest hug you could have dreamt of. The instrumental is sleek, embracing overly sweet synths. It is a power ballad, punctuated by muffled percussion and coated with IU’s comforting voice. She adds a dreamy feel to the already bittersweet production, but also spices it up with powerful high notes. This genre is most likely to be called plaid-music, because it wraps us in a sense of security that reminds us of childhood. This might not be the strongest addition to IU’s discography but it’s just as lovely and nostalgic. We can always count on her to provide magical vocal-driven choruses!

WOODZ

From debuting in Chinese-Korean boy group UNIQ as Seungyoun in 2014, to being one of the founding members of the fun project group called M.O.L.A with JAMIE and his friend Nathan, to going under the guise of Luizy as a soloist in 2016, to changing to his (now current) stage name WOODZ in 2018, to securing a spot in the short-lived Produce group X1 in 2019, and finally breaking out into the K-pop scene as one of the most notable post-Produce acts. WOODZ is a phoenix artist.

He has shown various sides of his characters in the past throughout his journey. But after his first mini album titled EQUAL released on 29th June 2020—led by the title track Love Me Harder—WOODZ’s skills has been spotlighted to the fullest: singer, rapper, dancer, composer. His growing self-composed discography, thanks to the harmonious collaborations between WOODZ and his friend Nathan, is a testament to his versatility as a soloist who is capable of tackling many genres, sounds, and characters.

WOODZ makes his latest comeback with dual title-tracks: Kiss of fire and WAITING. Now without further ado, let’s look at WAITING. WOODZ approaches this song with a much lighter groove as the main foundation, with the electric guitar taking a more supportive role and instead have acoustic guitars and percussion lead the charge. Sonically, it feels like a suitable sequel to his Jonas Brothers’ Sucker-inspired Love Me Harder, another solid song that showed off WOODZ’s capabilities as a self-composed artist. It’s ironic WAITING is sung in Korean whereas Kiss of fire is (mainly) in English, because the former sounds like it takes a lot of inspiration that are prevalent in Western music like Shawn Mendes. Nonetheless, that should not deter listeners from WOODZ’s strong and consistent performance. Even if it doesn’t build or improve on anything new, WAITING is another solid entry to arguably one of Korean soloists’ most consistent singles run that shows his more vulnerable side; a perfect polar opposite to the aggressive Kiss of fire.

With this, we finish the list of nominees for the Gayo Music Festival. The winner will be announced October 30 for those in the Western Pacific regions. October often provides us with legendary highlights, or sometimes with duds as well. Either way, October tends to be one of the most memorable months of the year for music, almost holding a harvest-season-esque importance in the K-Pop community, surprising as both are around similar times. Either way, legendary classics have landed in October.

Did this year provide any classics? It is hard to know. Time will tell. At the moment, there are some solid releases this month, with many having great opportunities to age well. We hope you enjoyed reading! Check out the 12th Gayo Music Festival, tomorrow, at Mozart Reviews’ blog in France. Subtitles will be provided in English.