Girls' Generation wins best artist at 2010 MelOn MUSIC AWARDS

Korean female idols Girls' Generation have claimed the top prize once again at the MelOn MUSIC AWARDS, taking the award for best artist this year as well as winning in three other categories.

At the awards ceremony for the 2010 MelOn MUSIC AWARDS held yesterday at the Grand Peace Palace at Seoul’s Kyung Hee University, the nine-member girl group were recognized as best artist of the year, placed among the top 10 singers in the country and took the Hot Trend award. "We are happy to receive the top award for the second time and we want to thank everyone at our agency and our fans," the members of Girls' Generation said, adding that they were sad that member Tiffany was not able to be present at the event.

Last month, Tiffany suffered an injury to her left knee after falling during a performance for their latest song "Hoot" on a televised music show and has taken time off from group activities to make a full recovery.

Meanwhile, four-member ballad group 2AM and girl group 2NE1 scored the 2010 SKTelecom best song for "Can't Let You Go Even If I Die" and best album of the year for their first full-length release "To Anyone," respectively, while both also ranked in the top 10 artist list. Korean rock band CNBLUE claimed the honor for this year's best new artist while Super Junior won the Netizen popular battle award and the best music video of the year went to Brown Eyed Girls' member Ga-in.

Other winners last night included miss A, IU, Lee Seung-gi, Supreme Team, Gummy, Hot Potato and PSY.

The award ceremony also featured a special duet performance of SS501 member Park Jung-min and songstress IU.

The "2010 MelOn MUSIC AWARDS," which was hosted by actor Song Joong-ki, first began last year and awards are handed to artists and songs based on 80 percent of the number of downloads their songs received and popularity on mobile devices and 20 percent of the popularity votes from listeners.

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