The 26th

Golden Disc Awards The Golden Disc Awards (, formerly spelled the Golden Disk Awards before 2015) is an annual South Korean major music awards ceremony that honors achievements in the local music industry. The awards ceremony was founded with the purpose to promo ...

took place on January 11–12, 2012, at the

Kyocera Dome The (official name: ) is a baseball stadium located in Osaka, Osaka, Japan. Opened in 1997, the stadium was the home field of the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes. In 2005, the stadium became one of the homes of the Orix Buffaloes, a result of the merg ...

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It honored the best in South Korean music released from January 1, 2011, through November 30, 2011. The event was held outside South Korea for the first time in the ceremony's history since its founding in 1986, as well as the first time at the beginning of the following year instead of December.

Leeteuk Park Jeong-su (born July 1, 1983), known professionally as Leeteuk (), is a South Korean singer, songwriter, presenter, radio personality and actor. He debuted as the leader of the boy band Super Junior in November 2005 and since then has part ...

Park Gyu-ri Park Gyu-ri (born May 21, 1988), better known by the mononym Gyuri, is a South Korean singer, actress, and radio personality. She is a member of South Korean girl group Kara. Life and career 1988–2002: Early life and career beginnings Park ...

Lee Hong-gi Lee Hong-gi (; born March 2, 1990), also known mononymously as Hongki, is a South Korean singer, actor, and media personality. He is best known as the front man of rock band F.T. Island. In 2015, Lee debuted as a solo artist with the release ...

, and

Bae Suzy Bae Su-ji (; born October 10, 1994), better known as Bae Suzy, is a South Korean singer, actress and model. She was a member of the girl group Miss A under JYP Entertainment. She made her debut as an actress with television series ''Dream High ...

served as the hosts for the event.

Criteria

The winners of the digital music and album categories were determined by music sales (80%) and a panel of music experts (20%). The Rookie Artist of the Year award was based on album sales (80%), a panel of music experts (10%) and online votes (10%), while the Popularity Award was based on online votes (80%) and album sales (20%).

Winners and nominees

Super Junior at Kaohsiung Arena, Taiwan(2) Cropped

Main awards

Winners and nominees are listed in alphabetical order. Winners are listed first and emphasized in bold.

Special awards

Controversy

The event was met with several controversies—including the venue, fairness, recorded broadcasts, and ticket sales. Observers commented that they did not see how Japan was relevant to the awards when sales figures were calculated from South Korea only. Others pointed out that although the

Mnet Asian Music Awards The MAMA Awards (formerly Mnet Asian Music Awards) is a major music awards ceremony presented annually by entertainment company CJ E&M. First held in South Korea, the majority of prizes has been won by K-pop artists, although there are other As ...

is also a South Korean ceremony that have been held abroad, it had various participants from several countries around the world, unlike the Golden Disc Awards where only Korean artists participate. Complaints were made about the high price of tickets into the show in contrast with the usual lottery system, as the award organizers opted for an indoor baseball stadium instead of a regular concert hall. This led to speculation that the event organizers were more interested in profits than the actual awards ceremony. On top of this, it was broadcast through JTBC's Lunar New Year special instead of being broadcast live, which led to criticisms of the awards being a "JTBC promotional concert" in an attempt to boost the channel's ratings. The absence of several popular artists such as

2NE1 2NE1 (, ) was a South Korean girl group formed by YG Entertainment, which was active between 2009 and 2016. The group was composed of four members: Bom, CL, Dara, and Minzy. Known for breaking typical stereotypes of K-pop, musical experiment ...

Big Bang The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...

, IU, and

T-ara T-ara (; ko, 티아라) are a South Korean girl group formed by MBK Entertainment in 2009, consists of four members: Qri, Eunjung, Hyomin and Jiyeon. T-ara's career is marked by hook-heavy dance-pop music, a result of their close partner ...

, with them not winning any awards also left controversy over fairness.

References

{{Golden Disc Awards 2011 in South Korean music 2011 music awards Golden Disc Awards ceremonies