Mnet Asian Music Awards

Mnet Asian Music Awards
2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards
Awarded for	Outstanding achievements in the music industry
Country	South Korea
Presented by	CJ E&M (Mnet)
First awarded	November 27, 1999
Official website	Mnet Asian Music Awards
Television/Radio coverage
Network	Mnet and other international networks

The Mnet Asian Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as MAMA) is one of the major K-pop music awarding ceremonies held annually by CJ E&M through its music channel Mnet, involving the participation of some of the most well-known actors and celebrities, not only in South Korea, but also in other countries such as China, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada and United States as well.

History

The Awards began in 1999 under the name "Mnet Km Music Festival" (MKMF).^[1] At that time, it was the first and only Korean music video awards ceremony.^[2] After its 10th year anniversary in 2008, the award-giving body was renamed to "M.net Asian Music Awards" or simply "MAMA" in 2009. This marked a change in concept and the way they will handle how people may vote for which artists win the awards.^[1] It started its broadcast live in China, Japan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia through Channel V International.

In 2010, the event was held outside of South Korea for the first time. The 12th annual event was held at the Venetian Resort Macao in Macao, China and aired live in many countries. BoA, who won the "Best Female Solo Award", was not present in the ceremony due to her music agency's, S.M. Entertainment, controversies with Mnet Media. In addition, CNBLUE, 2AM, Jo Kwon, Ga-In who all won awards were not broadcast due to lack of attendance.^[3]

Their slogans were changed from "Asian Wave" and "One Asia" in 2009 and 2010 respectively, until it becomes "Music Makes One" from 2011 until the present. Their slogans mean to spread their main objective to bring people together through music despite their different genre, origins, cultures, languages, or country.^[2]

Milestones

• 1999: The "Mnet Km Music Festival" (MKMF) was established and launched. The daesang awards include the "Music Video of the Year" and "Most Popular Music Video".^[1]
• 2006: The former daesang (or grand prize) award categories "Music Video of the Year" and "Best Popular Music Video" were changed to "Album of the Year", "Song of the Year" and "Artist of the Year".^[1]
• 2009: The former name was changed to "M.net Asian Music Awards" (MAMA).
• 2010: The event ceremony did not take place in South Korea for the first time, but in Macao, China.
• 2012: The event marked the most awards given in one night. 19 Competitive awards and 18 Special awards (37 in total) were presented.^[4]

Former name

• Mnet Video Music Awards (Mnet 영상음악대상, 1999)
• Mnet Music Video Festival (MMF, 2000–03)
• Mnet Km Music Video Festival (MKMF, 2004–05)
• Mnet Km Music Festival (MKMF, 2006–08)
• Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA, 2009–present)

Controversies

• In 2007, M and Shin Hye Sung, both members of Shinhwa left the MKMF event right before broadcasting.^[5]
• In 2009, S.M. Entertainment and Inwoo Production boycotted the 2009 MAMA event on November 21, hence none of their artists attended the event. Inwoo Production, representing trot singers Jang Yun-jeong and Park Hyun-bin, announced the boycott and questioned the fairness of the awards ceremony. Meanwhile, through a press release, S.M. Entertainment stated that they have reservation regarding the standard of fairness and criteria used in their selections, citing that Girls' Generation had topped a music chart for nine consecutive weeks but was never placed first place on their show and only debut on their charts a month after the album was released. They also asked that their artists be removed from a mobile poll which requires participants to pay a fee in order to vote saying they "do not want to see fans suffer any damage from the poll which has commercial intentions".^[6]

SS501 from DSP Media, Son Dam-bi and After School from Pledis Entertainment also did not attend the award ceremony but cited scheduling conflicts rather than boycott.^[7][8]

• In 2010, Rain, MBLAQ, 2AM, Beast, T-ara, Davichi^[9] 4Minute, Kara, Super Junior, Girls' Generation,^[10] Wheesung, BoA, After School, Son Dam-bi,^[11] Lee Hyori, CNBLUE,^[12] G.NA, and Rainbow who were all nominated did not attend the 2010 MAMA event in Macau, the first time it was held overseas. Many cited scheduling conflicts and that the live broadcast of MAMA on November 28 clashed with the live weekly broadcast of SBS's music show Inkigayo. Core Contents Media stated that T-ara and Davichi will not be attending due to scheduling conflicts. FNC announced that CN Blue will not attend due to individual activities despite being nominated for "Rookie of the Year", "Best Band Performance" and the "Shilla Duty Free Asian Wave" award. Jung Yong-hwa of CN Blue is also one of the three MCs for Inkigayo and member Kang Min Hyuk will be taking part in a SBS upcoming drama.^[13] J. Tune Entertainment and Pledis Entertainment also stated that their artists would not be attending.

Broadcasting

The show is broadcast live in thirteen countries across Asia. In South Korea and Japan, it is broadcast on Mnet. Other TV channels that have broadcast the show include STAR World, Channel M (Southeast Asia), Channel V, Music On! TV (Japan), 8TV (Malaysia), MediaCorp Channel U (Singapore), Indosiar (Indonesia), Myx (Philippines), MY TV (Cambodia), Mnet America (United States), NRK (Norway) and SBS (Australia). The show is also broadcast online from Mnet's website in South Korea, Sohu in China, YouTube Live and Allkpop for the rest of the world.^[14]

Host venues

Merit categories

Main Awards

Discontinued Awards

Most Wins

Daesang Awards

The following lists the artist(s) who received two or more daesang awards.
(Includes Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year)

Competitive Awards

The following lists the artists who received four or more competitive awards.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mnet Asian Music Awards.

• Official website