The Autumn to Winter shift means that the awards season in the K-Pop industry is approaching, and this year is no less daunting than usual for K-Pop fans.

To help guide you through the 2021 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA), here is a rundown of the information available to date.

WHAT IS MAMA?

Originating as a music video festival in 1999, MAMA has developed into one of the most iconic yet controversial events in the K-Pop calendar. Primarily, MAMA is a major awards show aired on the South Korean Mnet television channel, offering a range of accolades to and performances from a variety of Asian musical artists. The show is a South Korean ceremony, with most recipients falling into the K-Pop category, but artists from many different Asian countries have the chance to be rewarded too.

WHEN AND WHERE WILL MAMA TAKE PLACE?

The ceremony is scheduled for Saturday 11th December 2021, with the red carpet event due to begin at 7:00 a.m, Greenwich Mean Time (the current UK time zone). This usually involves the procession of a huge mix of K-Pop stars with photo opportunities before the main event is set to begin at 9:00 a.m (18:00 in the Korean timezone).

The theme of this year’s MAMA show is appropriately “Make Some Noise” as it will take place in person with a live audience, for the first time since the pandemic began, at the CJ ENM Content World in Paju, Seoul, in accordance with the South Korean government’s guidelines.

Watch the 2021 MAMA Main Teaser

WHO IS NOMINATED FOR A MAMA?

The 2021 K-Pop categories at MAMA include awards for Best New Male and Female Artists, Best Dance Performance Solo, Best Hip Hop & Urban Music, and Best Collaboration. Nominees for the 14 initial categories range from BTS, STAYC, Red Velvet, Ash Island, Baekhyun and Stray Kids, with the full list and details available on the 2021 MAMA site.

The divisive yet prestigious Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year awards (“grand prizes” commonly referred to as daesangs) will be selected from all the nominees of all the categories and their corresponding albums. 

According to the judging criteria of the MAMA website, the winners will be determined based on a combination of judging panels, sales, music video views and global streaming. This switches things up from previous MAMA shows, where these awards were partially decided by fan votes.

The Worldwide Icon of the Year daesang will, however, be determined primarily via fan voting of initially 100+ artists. After a couple of rounds of whittling down the nominees, the top 10 artists will be awarded the Worldwide Fans’ Choice (a solely fan-voted award, known as a bonsang). The overall winner of this award (combining final round fan votes with social media votes and global streaming data) will be the winner of the Worldwide Icon of the Year daesang.

WHO WILL BE PERFORMING AT MAMA THIS YEAR?

Whilst a fully detailed setlist will likely not be available until much closer to the date (if at all), confirmed performers during the show include Ed Sheeran, a newly reformed Wanna One, and contestants from the dance show Street Woman Fighter.

The show will be hosted by Lee Hyori, South Korean singer, record producer and actress dubbed the “Nation’s Fairy”, and performances from many idol groups and soloists are set to take place with the current lineup standing as follows according to the MAMA Twitter and Instagram: TXT, Stray Kids, NCT Dream, NCT 127, Kep1er, ITZY, ENHYPEN, Brave Girls, ATEEZ, aespa, and the Japanese boy groups JO1 and and INI.

WHERE TO WATCH MAMA 2021

The platform for the show livestream is yet to be officially confirmed by Mnet but it may be safe to assume that the awards will follow suit with last year’s show and be streamed live on both the Mnet and KCON YouTube channels, as well as on the main Mnet website and the VLive app. 

Links to livestreams can otherwise usually be found across social media platforms such as Twitter under the appropriate trending hashtag (eg. #MAMA2021) or after a quick key term search. 

Our Entertainment Contributor Gabii Rayner will be live tweeting MAMA 2021. Follow CHERRY CHU Magazine on Twitter for live updates. 

Edited by Chelsea Cheetham.