On December 9 KST, it was confirmed that T.O.P will be participating in the dearMoon Project, a lunar tourism project from Elon Musk’s company SpaceX. The goal of dearMoon is to accomplish the first-ever expedition to the moon with private civilians, and T.O.P will be participating in the project as one of eight crew members.

“I’m so honored to have been selected to be one of the crew members on the dearMoon Project,” T.O.P commented. “Ever since I was little, I always fantasized about space and the moon. I’m looking forward to my own personal growth through this project, and I want to feel new types of thrills and enlightenment.”

He also revealed that he wasn’t afraid at all of traveling to the moon, adding, “I feel a great sense of pride and responsibility at the prospect of being the first person from South Korea to go to the moon and represent my country. I hope that the dearMoon Project can inspire and instill hope in many people all over the world. I want to make people feel like anything is possible for anyone who has a dream.”

The dearMoon Project is an art project created by Japanese entrepreneur and billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, the founder of the largest online shopping mall in Japan. The project will utilize a spacecraft developed by SpaceX that will fly around the moon for approximately one week. In March of 2021, he opened applications for the trip and welcomed people from all around the world to apply for a spot on the crew. Over 1 million people from 249 countries and regions around the world applied to take one of the eight spots, showing just how competitive the selection process was.

In particular, Yusaku Maezawa said that he would pick people whom he considered artists, stating two qualifications that each crew member needed to possess in order to be selected: “They need to be able to grow through this space travel and possess the potential to help humanity and society, and they must be able to support their fellow crew members.”

In addition to T.O.P, other crew members on the ship will include DJ and producer Steve Aoki, photographer Rhiannon Adam, photographer and filmmaker Karim Iliya, choreographer Yemi A.D., musician and YouTuber Tim Dodd, and actor Dev Joshi. The two reserve crew members are snowboarder Kaitlyn Farrington and dancer Miyu.

The dearMoon Project is currently scheduled to launch in 2023.

Congratulations to T.O.P on being selected to participate in this historic event!

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Nominees have been revealed for the 37th Golden Disc Awards!

Songs and albums that were released between November 2021 through mid-November 2022 were eligible to be nominated this year, with music excluded from nomination last year included this year. For the album division awards, only albums with at least six new tracks (excluding intros, outros, and instrumentals) were eligible. OSTs and project songs from TV programs were not considered.

The final winners for Bonsang (Main Award) and Daesang (Grand Prize) are chosen 60 percent based on sales counted until mid-December 2022 and 40 percent based on scoring by the expert panel. The same evaluation criteria applies for Rookie Artist of the Year.

Voting will only be available for the Popularity Award, which will be 100 percent determined by votes.

The nominees are as follows:

Digital Song Division Bonsang (Main Award)

• (G)I-DLE – “TOMBOY”
• BE’O – “Counting Stars (Feat. Beenzino)”
• BIG Naughty – “Beyond Love (Feat. 10CM)”
• BIGBANG – “Still Life”
• BLACKPINK – “Pink Venom”
• GOT the beat – “Step Back”
• IVE – “LOVE DIVE”
• LE SSERAFIM – “FEARLESS”
• MSG Wannabe (M.O.M) – “Do you want to hear”
• NewJeans – “Attention”
• Choi Ye Na – “SMILEY (Feat. BIBI)”
• KyoungSeo – “Dear my X”
• MeloMance’s Kim Min Seok – “DrunKen Confession”
• TWICE’s Nayeon – “POP!”
• Red Velvet – “Feel My Rhythm”
• Jay Park – “GANADARA (Feat. IU)”
• PSY – “That That (prod. & feat. BTS’s Suga)”
• IU – “Drama”
• Lee Mujin “When it snows (Feat. Heize)”
• Lim Young Woong – “Our Blues, Our Life”
• Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon – “INVU”

Album Division Bonsang (Main Award)

• (G)I-DLE – “I love”
• ATEEZ – “THE WORLD EP.1 : MOVEMENT”
• BLACKPINK – “BORN PINK”
• ENHYPEN – “MANIFESTO : DAY 1”
• ITZY – “CHECKMATE”
• BTS’s J-Hope – “Jack In The Box”
• NCT – “Universe”
• NCT 127 – “2 Baddies”
• NCT DREAM – “Glitch Mode”
• SMTOWN – “2021 Winter SMTOWN : SMCU EXPRESS”
• Stray Kids – “MAXIDENT”
• TREASURE – “THE SECOND STEP : CHAPTER ONE”
• TWICE – “BETWEEN 1&2”
• Kim Ho Joong – “PANORAMA”
• TWICE’s Nayeon – “IM NAYEON”
• THE BOYZ – “BE AWARE”
• Red Velvet – “The ReVe Festival 2022 – Feel My Rhythm”
• BTS – “Proof”
• SEVENTEEN – “Face the Sun”
• Youngtak – “MMM”
• Lim Young Woong – “IM HERO”

Rookie Artist of the Year

• ATBO
• Billlie
• BLANK2Y
• IVE
• Kep1er
• LE SSERAFIM
• NewJeans
• NMIXX
• TEMPEST
• TNX
• Xdinary Heroes
• Choi Ye Na

The 37th Golden Disc Awards will be held on January 7 at Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

Stay tuned for the lineup and further updates!

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