Asia leading entertainment and lifestyle company CJ ENM has announced that the World’s No. 1 K-Pop music awards ceremony, MAMA (Mnet ASIAN MUSIC AWARDS) will be held in the United States, the home of pop and the world’s largest music market, in the coming years. This plan was unveiled at ‘2021 MAMA Global Press Conference’ today, ahead of “2021 MAMA” which is being held on December 11, broadcast globally starting at 6 PM KST (4 AM EST / 1 AM PST in the U.S.).
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Also at the press conference, CJ ENM shared its vision for the future, along with the achievements of MAMA over the past 12 years, and this year’s global artist to perform at MAMA — English singer and songwriter Ed Sheeran. In addition to topping the global charts with “Bad Habits” Sheeran is also known to Korean fans for collaborating with BTS for their song “Permission to Dance.”
Head of Entertainment at CJ ENM, Kim Hyun-soo said, “MAMA has been hosted mainly in Asia such as Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and Korea. As K-pop continues to grow in influence globally, we plan on expanding our presence to regions bordering Asia and beyond. In a few years, we plan to host MAMA in the US, the world’s biggest music market.”
To further solidify MAMA’s position as a global awards ceremony, a gradual reorganization is being made this year and next year, increasing the influence of MAMA as the World’s NO.1 K-POP music awards ceremony.
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Hyun-soo continued, “This is an important year for MAMA to really solidify its presence as a global K-pop music awards ceremony. We plan to include global indicators and judging criterias to reflect K-POP’s global status, which will further heighten MAMA as one of the top tier global awards shows.”
Apple Music’s Global Creative Director, Zane Lowe, added at the press conference, “Expanding its footprints across the globe, MAMA continues to make history as a pioneer in the K-pop industry: Our partnership with MAMA was a natural choice given the scale and credibility of the show. With subscribers hailing from 167 country around the world, Apple Music is excited to give K-Pop fans worldwide the opportunity to celebrate K-Pop music and vote for their favorite artists on our platform. Utilizing Apple Music to stream and vote for Worldwide Fans choice top 10 and integrating Apple Music streaming data to the judging criteria will further solidify MAMA’s influence as a global music awards show.”
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MAMA, which turns 13 this year, stands tall as a global K-pop awards ceremony. While it started in 1999 as Korea’s first music video awards ceremony, the ‘Mnet Video Music Awards,’ it was later expanded to MKMF, and in 2009, it was renamed ‘MAMA’ and newly launched in order to establish itself as a representative awards ceremony in Asia beyond Korea. Broadcast live throughout Asia in 2009, MAMA signaled a hopeful beginning to unite Asia through music. In 2010, the first K-pop awards ceremony was held overseas, in Macau, and then expansion continued to various Asian regions such as Singapore in 2011 and Hong Kong in 2012, building a reputation as a global K-pop awards ceremony in name and reality. In 2017, in Vietnam, Japan, and Hong Kong, in 2018, in three regions, Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong, MAMA grew to become a festival with more fans through a new challenge called ‘MAMA Week’. From 2010 to 2019, more than 181,900 people experienced the heat of MAMA in person.
‘2021 MAMA’ will be broadcasted worldwide on December 11, 6:00 p.m. KST. Please visit www.2021mama.com for more details.
