AAA Awards Mocked as 'Pork Sharing' – IU Wins Actor of the Year Amid Fireworks

The Korean awards ceremony "Asia Artist Awards" (AAA) was held in Taiwan for the first time, taking place at the Kaohsiung National Stadium (Main Stadium) on the night of the 6th. Hosting duties were handled by 'IVE' member Jang Wonyoung, who has hosted for five years, alongside '2PM's Lee Junho. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, AAA created many strangely named awards, with so many winners that people mocked it as "pork sharing." IU (Lee Ji-eun) took home both actor and singer awards, and when she won the grand prize "Actor of the Year," fireworks were set off to celebrate. "Stray Kids" swept both "Singer of the Year" and "Album of the Year" awards, while "Song of the Year" went to IVE's "REBEL HEART."

Additionally, it’s worth noting that besides winning "Actor of the Year" and "Best Couple" in the acting categories, IU also consecutively received singer awards such as "Fabulous," "Hot Trend," "Best Artist," and "Top 10 Legendary Singers." When giving her acceptance speech, she couldn't help but laugh, saying she was attending as an "actor," so winning singer awards left her a bit at a loss. Still, she promised to work even harder to produce good works and "become an IU who works harder at singing."

Golden Melody King JJ Lin was the only Mandarin-speaking artist from Asia invited to the event; he won the "2025 Artist of the Year" award. His expression at the moment was genuinely shocked, exclaiming: "I thought I was just invited to perform, I didn’t expect to receive an award." This entertaining moment was fully captured on camera. Afterwards, JJ Lin said, "Being able to come to this event makes me very happy, and I’m truly grateful to AAA for the recognition. I came here hoping to make friends and exchange music, I’m really happy."

Actor Lee Yi Kyung won the "Best Choice" award and thanked the organizers for giving him a moment to speak at the end of the year. He then addressed his recent personal life controversies, frankly admitting, "Actually, perhaps it’s not appropriate to talk about this at such a ceremony, but the suspect has been emailing the company to apologize and beg for forgiveness—I will definitely catch you."

Lee also used the opportunity to comment on his sudden removal from the Korean variety show "Hangout with Yoo," telling another show: "‘SNL’—I have Thursday off now," emphasizing he would available to participate. He then gave shoutouts to his former "Hangout with Yoo" castmates, saying, "HaHa-hyung, Woo Jae-hyung, I miss you guys! Thank you!" conspicuously omitting national MC Yoo Jae Suk. Korean netizens, after hearing Lee Yi Kyung's speech, heavily criticized him for being inappropriate: "Talking about private matters at an award show," "Is he openly sniping at 'Hangout with Yoo' and Yoo Jae Suk?" However, others felt he did well: "He was brave," "I support you," "Cool speech."

Previously, Lee Yi Kyung was embroiled in controversy after being exposed for privately messaging a female netizen to request nude photos, making sexual innuendos about size, and having screenshots made public. He was forced to quit "Hangout with Yoo" and dismissed from the hosting job for "My Superman Daddy." The female netizen later stated that the messages were AI-generated and apologized to him.