South Korean baritone Kim Tae-han has won the Queen Elisabeth Competition for voice, one of the three most coveted classical music contests in the world.

Kim was named the first prize winner during an awards ceremony held in Brussels, Belgium, on Sunday, becoming the first Asian male singer to win the contest since the voice section was added in 1988.

The Queen Elisabeth Competition rotates in a four-year cycle between the disciplines of piano, cello, voice, and violin.

South Koreans won the competition for the second straight year as Choi Ha-young won for the cello last year.

The competition, founded in 1937 and named after Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, is one of the three most prestigious contests for classical musicians, along with the International Chopin Piano Competition and the International Tchaikovsky Competition.