The Melon Music Award for Song of the Year is one of the awards from the annual Melon Music Awards, an event that uses data from Melon's streaming service to celebrate artists who have had exceptional performance during the year. The Song of the Year category recognizes the top performing single in South Korea based on various metrics such as digital performance, voting, and judge evaluation.

From 2005 to 2008, awards for best song of the year were based entirely on online voting and were announced on Melon's website. Live ceremonies began in Seoul starting in 2009, with Song of the Year becoming one of the ceremonies' daesang (grand prize) awards. The award is determined through several criteria; as of 2021, 60% of the evaluation is based on figures for digital downloads and streaming, 20% from the evaluation of a panel of judges, and 20% from online voting.

The artist with the most Song of the Year awards is BTS, having won four times in 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021 with "Spring Day", "Boy with Luv", "Dynamite" and "Butter", respectively. Wonder Girls received the award twice during its online period, with "Tell Me" and "So Hot" receiving the most votes in 2007 and 2008, respectively. IU has the most nominations in the category with seven nominations, winning once for "Good Day" in 2011.

Winners and nominees

List of online award winners (2005–2008)

Year	Winner(s)	Song	Ref.
2005	Epik High	"Fly"
2006	Baek Ji-young	"I Won't Love"
2007	Wonder Girls	"Tell Me"
2008		"So Hot"

List of daesang award winners and nominees (2009–present)

Year	Winner(s)	Song	Nominees	Ref.
2009	Girls' Generation	"Gee"	See: 2009 Melon Music Awards § Winners and nominees
2010	2AM	"Can't Let You Go Even If I Die"	Girls' Generation – "Oh!" 2NE1 – "Go Away" Lee Seung-gi – "Love Taught Me To Drink" CNBLUE – "I'm a Loner"
2011	IU	"Good Day"	2NE1 – "I Am the Best" Beast – "On Rainy Days" GG (Park Myung-soo, G-Dragon) ft. Park Bom – "Having an Affair" T-ara – "Roly-Poly"
2012	Psy	"Gangnam Style"	Busker Busker – "Cherry Blossom Ending" Sistar – "Alone" IU – "You & I" Trouble Maker – "Trouble Maker"
2013	Exo	"Growl"	Busker Busker – "Love, At First" Beast – "Shadow" IU – "The Red Shoes" G-Dragon – "Who You?"
2014	Taeyang	"Eyes, Nose, Lips"	IU – "Friday" ft. Jang Yi-jeong Soyou, Junggigo – "Some" Park Hyo-shin – "Wild Flower" San E, Raina – "A Midsummer Night's Honey"
2015	Big Bang	"Bang Bang Bang"	Sistar – "Shake It" Apink – "Luv" Exo – "Call Me Baby" Toy – "Three of Us"
2016	Twice	"Cheer Up"	Zico – "I Am You, You Are Me" Urban Zakapa – "I Don't Love You" GFriend – "Rough" MC the Max – "No Matter Where"
2017	BTS	"Spring Day"	IU – "Through the Night" Exo – "Ko Ko Bop" Bolbbalgan4 – "Tell Me You Love Me" Ailee – "I Will Go to You Like the First Snow"
2018	iKon	"Love Scenario"	Blackpink – "Ddu-Du Ddu-Du" Twice – "Heart Shaker" Mamamoo – "Starry Night" BTS – "Fake Love"
2019	BTS	"Boy with Luv" (feat. Halsey)	Ben – "180 Degrees" Chungha – "Gotta Go" Jannabi – "For Lovers Who Hesitate" N.Flying – "Rooftop"
2020		"Dynamite"	Blackpink – "How You Like That" Red Velvet – "Psycho" IU – "Eight" featuring Suga" Zico – "Any Song"
2021		"Butter"	aespa – "Next Level" IU – "Celebrity" Oh My Girl – "Dun Dun Dance" Lee Mu-jin – "Traffic Light"
2022	Ive	"Love Dive"	(G)I-dle – "Tomboy" Kim Min-seok – "Drunken Confession" Psy – "That That" (featuring Suga) Big Bang – "Still Life"
2023	NewJeans	"Ditto"	(G)I-dle – "Queencard" Aespa – "Spicy" BSS – "Fighting Ive – "I Am"

Artists with multiple wins

4 wins

• BTS

2 wins

• Wonder Girls

Artists with multiple nominations

See also

• Mnet Asian Music Award for Song of the Year
• Melon Music Award for Album of the Year