SEOUL: Girl group NewJeans received Artist of the Year, considered the top honour, at the 2023 Mama Awards billed as the biggest annual year-end K-pop awards ceremony, Yonhap news agency reported.

The quintet won the Samsung Galaxy Artist of the Year on the second of the two-night ceremony held at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo on Wednesday.

The one-year-old group beat out other big-name nominees, such as BTS members Jungkook and Jimin, Seventeen and Stray Kids, and NCT Dream to take the honor.

Artist of the Year is one of the big four categories of the ceremony hosted by Mnet, a Korean music cable channel.

In addition to the honour, NewJeans also won Samsung Galaxy Song of the Year, another one of the four main categories, for its hit single “Ditto,” Best Female Group and Best Dance Performance Female Group, bringing their total number of awards for this year to four.

NewJeans was absent from the ceremony, also opting not to deliver an acceptance speech through a video feed.

Samsung Galaxy Album of the Year, the last of the big four, went to boy group Seventeen on Wednesday night for “FML.”

This marks the first time that the band has lifted a major Mama trophy since its debut in 2015.

K-pop juggernaut BTS received the Samsung Galaxy Worldwide Icon of the Year, also one of the big four, for the sixth consecutive year the previous night.

Seventeen also won four other awards — Best Male Group, Best Dance Performance Male Group, Worldwide Fans’ Choice and Bibigo Culture & Style — for a total of five wins this year. Including Worldwide Icon of the Year, BTS garnered a total of three prizes, with the remaining two being Worldwide Fans’ Choice and Best OST for “The Planet.”