asia artist awards highlights aaa 2023
Pop Culture

10 Highlights From The Asia Artist Awards 2023 That Made The Crowd Go Wild

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Deafening cheers, fr.
BY Nica Glorioso
12.15.2023

From Melai Cantiveros’ speech to BSS’ finale performance, the Asia Artist Awards 2023 at the Philippine Arena featured a whole bunch of hype-worthy moments.

Related: The Asia Artist Awards Will Be Held In The PH For the First Time—Here’s What We Know So Far

A star-studded red carpet, a thrilling performance lineup, heartwarming acceptance speeches with a bit of Filipino sprinkled in, and a blending of Hallyu and Filipino culture marked the 8th Asia Artist Awards 2023 in the Philippines, held last December 14. Brought to the Philippines by PULP Live World and StarNews Korea, TONZ Entertainment, along with Smart Communications Inc., the Asia Artist Awards brought together lovers of both Hallyu and Filipino culture for a night of celebration, recognition, and arena-shaking performances.

Let us tell you firsthand that the lineup slayed, every performance was epic, every award was deserved, and—true to Filipino fashion—every moment throughout the seven-hour show was punctuated with the loud support of the crowd. While not everyone may have known every artist that attended, you can bet people left with more than half a mind to check out some new musical artists and K-dramas when they got home. To that end, we’ve rounded up a few of the highlights from the Asia Artist Awards 2023, which you can check out below.

PINOYS ON THE GLOBAL STAGE

From electric, hype-inducing performances from SB19, LAPILLUS, and HORI7ON that were cheered on by Korean idols to Pinoy artists accepting aptly-named awards at such a huge global award show, Filipinos were rightfully acknowledged for their talents and achievements, bringing pride to the nation and highlighting the ever-improving stature of Filipino pop culture.

MELAI CANTIVEROS. PERIOD.

There’s no doubt that Pinay actress Melai Cantiveros-Francisco stole the show at the Asia Artist Awards, even making it on Korean pop culture news platform Koreaboo. She killed it in a poofy pink dress at the red carpet and continued to kill it as a comedy queen during the main show, making both the audience and the Korean artists laugh and cheer her on.

WELL-DESERVED AWARDS AND DAESANGS

Something special about the Asia Artist Awards is how they don’t limit themselves to just one winner when it comes to awarding deserving artists. Multiple people can win the same award, and no matter the award’s title, it’s well-deserved.

For the grand prizes, or daesangs, the anticipation was high, and the tension of the silence before the reveal of the winner is palpable. Whether the winner was expected or not, everybody erupted into cheers when someone gets awarded, especially when NewJeans bagged two daesangs for being Artist of the Year and for Ditto as Song of The Year, and BSS received the Performance of the Year Award (for what they said was a “joke” comeback) and the Album of the Year Award for FML on behalf of SEVENTEEN.

KIM SEJEONG! KIM SEJEONG!

It definitely seemed like everyone at the Philippine Arena fell for Business Proposal star Kim Sejeong, what with her glowing aura and the cheers from all her fans and supporters. The 27-year old actress and singer drank up all the deserved cheers, and even provided some adorable fanservice doing heart cheeks while accepting her award.

OH MY, OH MY GOD

Awards shows can get long, and people get restless, for sure. But once NewJeans came out at AAA, you can bet everybody shot up in their seats and screamed all their lyrics back to them. Never have we heard such loud chants of “Oh my, oh my God / 예상했어 나 / I was really hoping that he will come through.”

LE SSERAFIM, IT-GIRLS

From the red carpet to the main show, LE SSERAFIM was easily a crowd favorite. The cheers were loud every time they came on screen or on stage (I think I have the repeated screams of “CHAEWONNNNN!!!” by the fan behind me burned into my senses forever), and the lightsticks always went crazy for the girl group.

STRAY KIDS GOING TO THE STANDS

The floor near the stage where, if this was a concert, fans would occupy it as VIP ticket holders was reserved for the artists in their tables and chairs, so the artists at AAA were a bit far from the audience. But Stray Kids, in their performance of an intro, MANIAC, GET LIT, TOPLINE, and LALALA—complete with pyrotechnics—had the crowd going wild, especially when members stepped down the stage and went near the stands.

KATHRYN’S GRACEFUL SPEECH

Upon accepting the Fabulous Award, Kathryn Bernardo in all her grace launched into a beautiful speech that introduced her to a global audience, expressed her gratitude and pride, and showed appreciation for Filipino arts and culture. That’s queen energy.

THE INTERACTIONS

Award shows offer pretty rare opportunities for idols, actors, and now even Filipino artists, to interact. But when put in one setting, you can bet you’ll get some interactions between your favorite idols or actors. For instance, every interaction between Fighting singers BSS and Lee Youngji had the crowd cheering, and the format for multiple award winners allowed artists to share the stage and provide some crumbs for their fans.

BSS & YOUNGJI BRINGING THE HOUSE DOWN

In the much-anticipated finale of the award show, the extremely personable BSS started off with a relaxed and hilarious performance of 7PM and featured actors Kim Sejeong, Kentaro Sakaguchi, and Lee Donghwi in their dinner skit. They then launched into energetic performances of Fighting (feat. Lee Young-ji) and Just Do It that electrified the audience and even got the artists on their feet, closing out the Asia Artist Awards 2023 in the only way they knew how: amazingly, and with a bang.

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