CJ ENM Announces New Voting And Judging Criteria For 2021 MAMA, To Reflect Global K-Pop Trends

Asia’s leading entertainment and lifestyle company CJ ENM today revealed the new judging and voting criteria for the ‘2021 Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS’ (hereafter 2021 MAMA), the World’s No.1 K-Pop music awards ceremony. The new criteria has been set in place to reflect global K-pop trends in-line with K-pop’s growing presence worldwide.

All of the voting and judging details will be explained in full during the nominations broadcast, which will take place tomorrow, November 3rd, and kick off the road to 2021 MAMA.  Available via livestream on the Mnet K-pop and KCON Official YouTube channels, this nominations special will begin at 7 AM PT / 10 AM EST / 11 PM KST.

This year, MAMA will implement two different judging standards to make sure that all factors –popularity and artistic quality – are equally recognized. For the three main awards that focus on recognizing artists and songs with high artistic value, ‘Song of the Year’, ‘Artist of the Year’, and ‘Album of the Year’ will be judged by a panel of judges consisting of K-pop experts combined with data from different music charts, including album streaming and album sales.

One of the four main awards recognizing mass appeal and popularity, ‘Worldwide Icon of the Year’ and runner-up ‘Worldwide Fans’ Choice TOP 10’ awards will be judged solely by global K-pop fans to completely reflect the voices of K-pop fans all over the world.

In order to make sure that global trends are reflected in the results, global data will be integrated in the judging process. For the first time ever, MAMA will be introducing a global music chart to reflect worldwide trends in the results through its partnership with global streaming service Apple Music, currently serviced in 167 countries. Through Apple Music, K-pop fans all over the world will be able to take part in 2021 MAMA. Apple Music’s global charts will join Gaon Chart, Twitter, and YouTube.

Additionally, MAMA will be adding a strong panel of judges consisting of K-pop experts in the global music industry to reflect global trends and K-pop fans’ popular opinions. All data used in the judging process will be examined by an outside organization, Samil PwC.

Global votes to determine the nominees for ‘Worldwide Fans’ Choice TOP 10’ will be separated into two parts. The first round of voting (pre-vote), which will determine the nominees for the ‘Worldwide Fans’ Choice TOP 10’ will start immediately after the nomination broadcast on November 4^th, 2 AM PT / 5 AM EST / 6 PM KST on MAMA’s official website (2021mama.com), Apple Music(playlist), and Twitter. A second round of voting will follow to decide on the final winner.

Another change will be to the ‘Professional Categories’ that celebrated professionals in Asia. Not limiting to Asia, this will be expanded to cover anyone who contributed to the K-pop industry in each specific field to K-pop’s increasing presence on the global stage.

Hyun Soo Kim, Head of Music Entertainment at CJ ENM said, “MAMA has served as a global music hub for K-pop for the last 12 years. As a pioneer in expanding the presence of K-pop globally, MAMA yet again plans to evolve by upgrading our judging criteria to reflect the global changes and trends in the current music industry. Our priority is to make sure the voting and judging process for our awards ceremony, now celebrated globally, is transparent and honors the leaders in our industry from a complete perspective.”

‘2021 MAMA’ will be broadcasted worldwide on December 11, 6:00 p.m. KST.

Expanding its footprints across the globe, MAMA continues to make history as a pioneer in the K-pop industry. It was not only the first K-pop awards show to be hosted across the world, but also the first to be held in two or more regions in 2017 (Vietnam, Japan and Hong Kong) and 2018 (Korea, Japan and Hong Kong). In 2019, MAMA was the first K-pop awards ceremony held in a domed stadium.