The 22ndMnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) 2020 was held on December 6, 2020 in Paju in South Korea under the theme ‘New-Topia’ The ceremony was conducted without a live audience due to Covid-19 restrictions. Moreover, it was the first time in 11 years that MAMA took place in South Korea. It was hosted by the ‘Descendants of the sun’ star Song Joong Ki. MAMA is considered as one of the biggest and vital Award shows in Asia. The ten CJ ENM 2020 Visionaries were BTS, Blackpink, Bong Joon Ho, Park Ji Eun, Shin Won Ho, Kim Eun Hee, Kim Tae Ho, Yoo Jae Suk, Rain, and Song Kang Ho.
Awards were presented under three categories. In the K-POP category all songs that were eligible to be nominated were songs released from October 24, 2019 to October 28 2020. In the Asian Music category all songs released from October 1 2019 to September 30 2020 by artists from Japan, China, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam were judged. The professional category consisted of music released from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2020 by music experts who worked in music related contents from South Korea, Japan, China, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam. Online Voting was opened for all fans of artistes, on the official MAMA Website and twitter and ended on December 5, 2020. It was aired live on YouTube channels; Mnet K-POP and KCON including in the mwave.me website for worldwide fans.
Virtual ceremony
Although the ceremony was held virtually, the performances brought back the immense and powerful energy blended with top notch technology. Breathtaking and amazing performances were given by Boy groups Monsta X, Stray Kids, Ateez, BTS, TXT, NCT, Enhypen, The Boyz, JO1, NCT dream, NCT 127, Seventeen, Got7, WayV, along with Girl Groups Oh my Girl, G(I)-DLE, IZ*ONE, and Mamamoo and included solo presentations by Taemin, Jessi, Hwasa, Winter, YooA, BoA and Juyeon. The newly debuted groups Treasure and Cravity exhibited their excellent talents.
South Korean actors and actresses such as Park Seo Joon, Lee Jung Jae, Lee Sun Bin, Park Kyu Young, Choi Soo Young, Jeon Mi Do, Lee Da Hee, Lee Yu Bi and Kim Ji Suk presented awards to the winning artistes. James Corden made a surprise appearance as the presenter for Album of the Year.
Awards
World Wide phenomenon BTS won the four daesangs (Artiste of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Worldwide Icon of the Year) for the second consecutive time, ass well as the Awards for Best Male Group, Best Dance Performance (Male Group), Best Music Video for their Billboard Hot 100 hit Dynamite and Worldwide Fan’s Choice Top 10. They captured a total of eight Main Awards and one Favourites Award. Out of the septet only six members attended the Award Show. The missing member, Suga who is on rehabilitation after his shoulder surgery made the acceptance speech to thank BTS Army for the Album of the Year via a phone call.
However, during their performance of Life Goes On, Suga made a surprise appearance for their fans.
Although Blackpink won the Best Female Group, Best Dance Performance (Female) for How you like that and Worldwide Fan’s Choice Top 10, they neither staged nor were present for the award show this year which was rather disappointing for their fans, The Blinks.
The remaining eight awards for worldwide fans choice was bagged by NCT, Treasure, TXT, Got7, Ateez, Seventeen, Mamamoo and Twice. IU won the awards for Best Vocal Performance (Solo), Best Female Artiste and Best Collaboration along with Suga of BTS for the touching song Eight. Hwasa from Mamamoo took home the award for Best Dance Performance (Solo) for her song Maria.
The Best Band Staging was triumphed by Day6. The Best New Male and Female Artiste Award was bagged by Treasure and Weekly respectively. Zico’s Any Song gained the reward for Best Hip-hop and Urban music. Gaho carried away the Best OST for Start Over from the drama Itaewon class. Artistes Jessi and Taemin won the Favourite Dance Performance female and male (Solo). While TXT’s Can’t You See Me? gained the Favourite Dance Performance (Group).
Special Awards were awarded to BoA for Inspired Achievement for her work in the industry. Twice won the award for Most Popular Artiste home. While Ateez, Cravity, Monsta X, and Seventeen also took home Special Awards.
Official High Dandism (Japan), G.E.M (China), Ink Warunton (Thailand), Rizky Febian(Indonesia), and Binz(Vietnam) won the Best Asian Artiste Award. Fujii Kaze (Japan), Chih Siou (China), Milli (Thailand), Tiara Andini(Indonesia) and Amee (Vietnam) won Best New Asian Artiste Awards.
Under the Professional Categories, Bang Si Hyuk, MU: E, Pdogg, Lumpens, Quang Dang, Gu Jong Pil, Kwon Nam Woo, Yovie Widianto won awards.
