SB19, TJ Monterde, And Maki Are Final Nominees At MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN 2025 – How To Vote
Powered by Billboard Japan, the highly anticipated event is expected to be Japan’s “largest music awards show,” featuring nominees from Japan, the rest of Asia, and other countries all over the world.
TJ Monterde: courtesy of @tjmusicmonterde. SB19: courtesy of @SB19Official. Maki: courtesy of @clfrnia_maki
SB19: Courtesy of 1Z Entertainment
SB19, TJ Monterde, and Maki are officially among the final nominees for the first ever MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN.
Happening for the first time ever this year, MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN or MAJ is a major music awards event that is slated to become the “Asian version of the Grammy Awards” and is expected to officially become Japan’s “largest music awards show.” The event is set to happen on May 21 and 22, 2025 at the presitigious Rohm Theatre Kyoto in Kyoto, Japan.
The first ever MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN will feature 60 or so awards categories, which includes six major ones. These categories are further divided into a number of sub-categories, including the following: 23 divisions for the Song category, 7 in the International Song category, 5 in the Album category, 12 in the Artist category, and 3 in the Alliance category.
Throughout these categories, three homegrown Filipino acts are among the final nominees. These are the Kings of P-pop SB19, chart-topping balladeer TJ Monterde, and viral pop hitmaker Maki. SB19 are nominated for the Request Special Award: Oshikatsu Request of the Year powered by USEN category, while Monterde’s “Palagi” and Maki’s “Dilaw” are part of the final 30 songs in the Best of Listeners’ Choice: International Song powered by Spotify fan-voted category.
Notably, Monterde and Maki, alongside R&B hitmakers Dionela and Jay R, were also among the initial 24 nominees for the Best Song Asia category — one of the event’s six major categories. It showcases the “Asian songs that have become hits in Asia,” with initial nominees “decided from the top 3 songs from the 2024 year-end charts of Asian countries/regions excluding Japan.”
In addition to these, there is also a Special Award: Philippine Popular Music category, which “recognizes the song that received the ‘Song of the Year’ or an equivalent award at the Awit Awards in the Philippines.” The winner has yet to be announced. Watch this space for updates.
Learn more about the categories SB19, TJ Monterde, and Maki are nominated for below:
Best of Listeners’ Choice: International Song powered by Spotify
For TJ Monterde and Maki, the two singer-songwriters are part of the final top 30 of the Best of Listeners’ Choice: International Song category powered by Spotify — “an award given to a domestic song has become a global hit.” It is part of the General Voting or Listeners’ Choice categories where “one best work will be decided from 30 works chosen as nominees through Spotify’s voting function.”
In this special category, fans have the power to decided the winner of the award using a voting function on an official Spotify playlist featuring the nominees. In this playlist, listeners are allowed to cast a total of three (3) votes per day to vote for their favorite songs via the Spotify mobile app.
The final voting period for this category is from April 17, 2025 (Thursday) to April 30, 2025 (Wednesday), with “the best work” set to “be determined by votes from general listeners both in Japan and abroad.” Vote for your favorite songs here.
Request Special Award: Oshikatsu Request of the Year powered by USEN
The category in which SB19 are nominated in is the Request Special Award: Oshikatsu Request of the Year category which is powered by USEN. This special category’s nominees were chosen through USEN’s Oshikatsu Request song voting service, where the top 50 artists in the ranking were the initial nominees or Entry Artists. From there, “the top 10 artists who receive the most requests during the nomination aggregation period will advance to the winner aggregation period.”
For the category’s final top 10, SB19 are the first and only Filipino and Southeast Asian act to be nominated for the award. Joining the trailblazing P-pop hitmakers in this category are Japanese groups BE:FIRST, INI, JO1, King & Prince, NiziU, Number_i, and Sakurazaka46, as well as Korean acts V of BTS and Tomorrow X Together. The nomination aggregation period for this category was held fromm March 13, 2025 (Thursday) to April 13, 2025 (Sunday). The winner is set to be announced later on. Watch this space for updates.
Check out the full list of nominees for MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN 2025 here.