2025 Summer Music Awards – Nominations

By deforestedmusic on 23 Aug 2025

Starting 2021, we will acknowledge what shaped the summer of every Korean music fan worldwide. This is the mission of the Summer Music Awards. We are back this year for more, and this time around it is going to be hot as you've never seen before.

We would like to present the nominees of this year's Summer Music Awards. This year, the Summer Music Awards eligibility period is from May 26, 2025 - August 15, 2025. The award will be based on the votes of music critics from various blogs around the world specializing in Korean or East Asian music.

General Field (Daesang)

Hot Summer Artist

aespa
ARTMS
ATEEZ
CLOSE YOUR EYES
fromis_9
ILLIT
NCT DREAM
TOMORROW X TOGETHER
TWICE
unevermet

Hot Summer Album

Bomb (ILLIT)
Club Icarus (ARTMS)
Dare to Crave (CRAVITY)
EROS (Lee Chanhyuk)
N: Number of Cases (NouerA)
Seoul Syntax (Bek Hyunjin)
Soft Error (Yves)
This is For (TWICE)
A Montage of ( ) [VIVIZ]
unevermet (unevermet)

Hot Summer Song

BOYtude (unevermet)
Golden (HUNTR/X, eJae, Audrey Nuna & Rei Ami)
Icarus (ARTMS)
Killin' It Girl (j-hope & GloRilla)
LIKE YOU BETTER (fromis_9)
Paint Candy (CLOSE YOUR EYES)
Soap (Yves & PinkPantheress)
SET NET G0?! (CRAVITY)
Style (Hearts2Hearts)
Surf (NCT WISH)

Hot Summer Debut

AHOF
AllDay Project
CLOSE YOUR EYES
CORTIS
unevermet
IDID
izna
NouerA
XngHan & Xoul
XLOV

Genre Field

Hot Summer Alternative

1&ONLY (XLOV)
Icarus (ARTMS)
little monster (ILLIT)
Soap (Yves & PinkPantheress)
You Never Met (unevermet)

Hot Summer Pop

Dancing Alone (KiiKii)
Golden (HUNTR/X)
LIKE YOU BETTER (fromis_9)
La La Love Me (VIVIZ)
Rendezvous (AHOF)
Surf (NCT WISH)

Hot Summer Dance

CHILLER (NCT DREAM)
n (NouerA)
SET NET G0?! (CRAVITY)
Style (Hearts2Hearts)
White cat (Yves)
HUNTER (KEY)

Hot Summer Rap

awesome (ARrC)
BOYtude (unevermet)
Dirty Work (aespa)
FAMOUS (AllDay Project)
Slam Dunk (ZEROBASEONE)
Step It Up (IDID)

Hot Summer R&B

How Can I Do (EVNNE)
Killin' It Girl (j-hope & GloRilla)
Lemon Drop (ATEEZ)
Snowy Summer (CLOSE YOUR EYES)
Storm (unevermet)

Hot Summer Rock

EVERGLOW (NOWZ)
Into the Woods (Bek Hyunjin)
NamgungFEFERE (Silica Gel & Japanese Breakfast)
Radio Silence (Dragon Pony)
Wish I Were Stuck In A Silly Cheesy Media (Park Soeun)

Technical Field

Hot Summer Video

Dirty Work (aespa)
Icarus (ARTMS)
little monster (ILLIT)
Snowy Summer (CLOSE YOUR EYES)
You Never Met (unevermet)

Hot Summer Style

aespa
CORTIS
CLOSE YOUR EYES
ILLIT
unevermet

Hot Summer Performance

Dirty Work (aespa)
Killin' It Girl (j-hope & GloRilla)
Lemon Drop (ATEEZ)
Rendezvous (AHOF)
SET NET G0?! (CRAVITY)

Hot Summer Producer

Jaden Jeong
Cirkut
e.one
EL CAPITXN
Paprikaa

Hot Summer Writer

Bek Hyunjin
Cha Woongki
EL CAPITXN
KENZIE
Kim Hongjoong & Song Mingi

The winners of the 2024 Summer Music Awards will be announced here on deforestedmusic on August 31, 2024. Thank you for participating and see you around the summer wave!