The prestigious Baeksang Arts Awards recently finds itself at the center of a massive controversy, with accusations of voting manipulation clouding the female popularity award category. In particular, as of April 26, Hyeri (Friendly Rivalry) leads the votes with over 3 million, followed closely by Kim Hye-yoon (Lovely Runner) and IU (When Life Gives You Tangerines), each surpassing 2.4 million votes. Meanwhile, Haewon from NMIXX, who ranks 4th, trails behind with about 30,000 votes, followed by Kim Tae-ri and Song Hye-kyo, with around 14,000 to 16,000 votes each.
The huge gaps between the top 3 (IU, Hyeri, and Kim Hye-yoon) and the rest of the candidates cause sharp-eyed fans to notice suspicious patterns in the voting system, leading to allegations that the three’s fan bases were unfairly inflating their vote counts.
In particular, screenshots circulating online suggest that a large volume of votes were generated unnaturally fast, adding fuel to the outrage. Many netizens have now demanded the Baeksang committee filter out the rigged votes and investigate the situation, accusing the awards of losing credibility year after year by failing to catch vote rigging behavior.
Additionally, calls to disqualify IU, Hyeri and Kim Hye-yoon to give the popularity award to Haewon — a contender perceived as having a “clean” voting record — have grown stronger. Many comments on Korean forums sarcastically noted that macro votes have become so rampant that genuine fan support is being overshadowed.
Below are some comments from netizens:
- We should give the award to Haewon because what the hell is that gap
- The top 3 are suspicious as hell
- What’s the point of the award if they just let vote-rigging runs rampant like that?
- All three of them should be disqualified
- It seems that IU, Hyeri, and Kim Hye-yoon fans are rigging the votes… Why do they have to go that far
- Baeksang needs to filter out the votes to ensure fairness.
On the other hand, Hyeri, who is leading in votes, is said to have received massive fan support following her role in the bold lesbian K-drama “Friendly Rivalry”.
