In this special episode of Sooeun goes Solo, seniors Rin Ryu and Rida Zaki talk about the MAMA 2023 awards, favorite performances, and biggest surprises.
The 2023 MAMA Awards (Mnet Asian Music Awards), an annual major music awards ceremony hosted by entertainment company CJ E&M, was hosted in the Tokyo Dome on Nov. 28-29.
The two-day event is considered to be one of the most acclaimed K-pop award ceremonies in which K-pop songs and albums can be nominated to win. Day one awards are based on fan votes, in which fans can vote in ten categories. Day two recognizes artist’s achievements and performances throughout the year based on the performance of songs on Circle Chart, Spotify, and YouTube.
There are numerous awards artists can win, but a Daesang is considered to be the grand prize award. There are four Daesangs to be won: Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, Albums of the Year, and Worldwide Icon of the Year. The only one-year-old girl group, NewJeans won Artist of the Year and Song of the Year with “Ditto.” Seventeen won Album of the Year with their tenth EP, FML. Unsurprisingly, BTS won Worldwide Icon of the Year for the sixth consecutive year since 2018.
In addition to its awards, MAMA is known for their grand performances; artists will prepare impressive shows, usually centered around dancing.
Performances will have a theme that sets the tone for the performance; there were a total of 23 themes. For some themes, there was a combination of artists and performances, while for others, only one group performed. Performances usually combine multiple songs and a dance break to create performances ranging from two to ten minutes.
Performances will have a theme that sets the tone; there were a total of 23 themes this year. Each theme is unique in that it features different artists and songs to create performances that range from two to ten minutes long. Most themes include multiple artists who collaborate on the performance.
My favorite part of award shows has always been seeing the interactions between artists, which can be rare. Thus, I thought it was only natural for me to like the performance from Huh Yunjin of Le Sserafim, Xiaoting of Kep1er, Bada Lee from Street Woman Fighter 2, Monika from Street Woman Fighter, and Minnie of (G)I-dle the best. They performed under the theme of “Goddess Awakened,” in which each artist performed a solo stage inspired by a certain goddess; in the end, they all combined on one stage to create a super stage.
