First announced to be held in Indonesia last November, the Golden Disc Awards partnered with Bank Mandiri and presented a range of K-pop artists loved in both in South Korean and around the world.  

The Jakarta gig marked the first time the country has ever held a major annual K-pop award show. The previous Golden Disc Awards show was held in Bangkok in January 2023. Other Asian cities such as Osaka, Kuala Lumpur and Beijing have also hosted the awards, in 2012, 2013 and 2015, respectively.

In Saturday’s showdown, excited K-pop fans filled three-quarters of the 82,000 seats in the JIS, and lit up the venue in northern Jakarta with light sticks representing their favorite groups.

After a brief red-carpet session, the night started with performances by newcomers ZEROBASEONE and BOYNEXTDOOR, touted as rising boy groups in K-pop. The former ended up winning the Rookie of the Year award and the latter took the Next Generation accolade.

The show highlighted K-pop’s ever-increasing dominance across the globe through the variety of genres that each performer offered. Established seniors like Stray Kids, who won the Global K-pop Artist award that night, showcased the best hip-hop fusion side through singles like “S-Class”.

The audience enjoyed pop song "God of Music" by the leading boy group SEVENTEEN, and the energetic “Fighting” from the group's subunit BSS. SEVENTEEN won the Album of the Year that evening for its 2023 extended play, entitled FML. The EP has sold a record-breaking 6.2 million copies, making it the first K-pop album to ever achieve such sales.

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