Recently, girl group NewJeans was honored at the 2025 Korea Grand Music Awards (KGMA) with the "Trend of the Year" category, along with male singer Trot Lee Chan Won.
This immediately attracted attention, because the 5-member girl group has just announced that they will return to activities under the management of ADOR company (under HYBE Group), after being defeated in a lawsuit over an exclusive contract with the company.
This "Tending of the Year" award is based on the results of the votes for "Tending of the Month" over the past year.
The KGMA organizers recognize artists who lead trends in many areas of popular music through monthly public voting, and the year-end award is given to the artist with the highest accumulated achievements.
Last year, NewJeans won 2 categories at this music awards ceremony, including the Daesang "Artist of the Year" award.
However, NewJeans' award is controversial. Because the group has temporarily stopped activities about a year after holding a press conference to announce the termination of their contract with ADOR (November 2024), no music products have been released.
In addition, NewJeans is mentioned a lot in the media and social networks, mainly revolving around the developments of the contract lawsuit with ADOR.
Many opinions say that the "Trend of the Year" award should be given to artists and music groups that create positive trends and have outstanding achievements, instead of honoring music groups that have been involved in lawsuits all year and have many negative news like NewJeans.
On November 12, ADOR confirmed that NewJeans members Haerin and Hyein have respected the court's ruling and complied with the contract ( valid until 2029), they will return to activities under ADOR's management.
Immediately after that, 3 members Minji, Hanni and Danielle also announced through the media their intention to return to ADOR. However, ADOR said that this has not been agreed with the company, but is just a unilateral statement by the 3 idols.
The company said that they are in the process of arranging private meetings with each member and will do their best to ensure the discussions run smoothly.
However, NewJeans has lost sympathy in the public eye. Many viewers criticized the idols' forced behavior, self- control of their own actions, and objected to ADOR's facility to let NewJeans return after the group had caused a stir over the past year.
On the other hand, the public requires NewJeans to directly apologize to the groups involved in the dispute such as ILLIT, LE SSERAFIM, as well as HYBE Group's employees affected by the lawsuit.
