Favourite moments from the 2023 SBS Gayo Daejeon music festival
The annual music festival featured performances from aespa, NCT U, ZEROBASEONE and more.
With the end-of-year festivities kicking into high gear, the K-pop music scene is also celebrating a year of new record-breaking music releases, with bigger and brighter stages than ever before.
To wrap up the successes of this year’s top K-pop artists, the annual music festival Gayo Daejeon, by Korean broadcasting network SBS, was held on Christmas day. Hosted by IVE’s Yu-jin, SHINEE’s Key and TXT’s Yeon-jun, the festival was a star-studded affair that showcased many special performances by the incredible lineup of idols.
NMIXX’s white, wintery looks had us feeling the holiday spirit on the red carpet, while Aespa’s easy elegance was brought to life with their evening numbers.
The girls of NewJeans also took to the red carpet dressed in cute, frilled numbers, opting for a more youthful choice, than their previous year-end red carpet looks. Amongst the male idols, NCT’s maroon velvet blazers were a standout, as were the festive looks worn by BoyNextDoor, complete with adorable festive-themed headbands.
Check out the best fits from the red carpet below:
The musical festival, which took place at the Inspire Arena in Incheon, saw a massive lineup of special stages from the artists.
Notably, Aespa and members of NCT each performed homages to TVXQ, second-generation legends of the K-pop world and seniors from their shared record label SM Entertainment. The girls of aespa performed TVXQ’s most iconic song ‘Mirotic’, while XiaoJun, Doyoung and Chenle from NCT performed a soft ballad from TVXQ’s 2004 album Tri-Angle, ‘I Believe’.
LE SSERAFIM channelled the Christmas energy last night with a holiday mix of their hit English song ‘Perfect Night’, and Yuna from ITZY performed a very special rendition of Blackpink Jennie’s solo track ‘You & Me’.
Plus, rookie boyband ZEROBASEONE performed ‘Crush’, while fan-favourites NewJeans sang a holiday medley of ‘New Jeans’, ‘Ditto’ and ‘OMG’.
Check out more performances from the 2023 SBS Gayo Daejeon below:
