It has been a month and a half since the MAMA awards ceremony. Do you remember much from it? Well, here I am with another recap of the MAMA 2016. As we all know, MAMA is one of the biggest award ceremonies that celebrates South Korean music in 2016. It also looks at the achievements of artists and music within the Asian continent, as well. Once again, this year the ceremony was held in Hong Kong on the 2nd of December 2016.

So who attended the awards? Well, YG Entertainment artists were a no show for this award ceremony, which is considered odd, as they tend to go to the MAMA awards and sweep the awards each year. Instead, the performances during the ceremony came from: GOT7, BTS, EXO, NCT, Taemin (SHINee), GFriend, Twice, I.O.I, Seventeen, Red Velvet, Taeyeon (SNSD), Monsta X, Suzy (Miss A), Zico (Block B), Dean, Crush, Eric Nam, BeWhy, Lee Juck, Ko Sang Ji, Yoo Ah In and Yiruma. NCT Dream, I.O.I and SF9 performed on the red carpet. The MAMA awards also invite international artists to perform on the show and this year they invited Timbaland, Gallant and Wiz Khalifa.

Who won an award? See below!
Best New Male Artist – NCT127
Best New Female Artist – I.O.I
Best Male Vocal Performance – Crush ft. Taeyeon (Don’t Forget)
Best Female Vocal Performance – Ailee (If You)
Best Male Dance Performance – BTS (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
Best Female Dance Performance – GFriend (Rough)
Best Solo Dance Performance – Taemin (Press Your Number)
Best Collaboration / Subunit – Suzy & Baekhyun (Dream)
Best Rap Performance – Cjamm & BeWhy (Puzzle)
Best Band Performance – CN BLUE (You’re So Fine)
Best Male Group – EXO
Best Female Group – Twice
Best Male Artist – Zico
Best Female Artist – Taeyeon
Best Music Video – BlackPink (Whistle)
Best Album (Album of the Year) – EXO (EX’ACT)
Best Song (Song Of The Year) – Twice (Cheer Up)
Best Artist (Artist Of The Year) – BTS
However, the list does not stop there. There are few extra awards given out to the Korean artists. Also, there were also awards given to other Asian artists for their success. While I won’t be listing those awards, you can check Wikipedia’s page for the 2016 MAMA awards for the winners.
World Performer Award – Seventeen
Worldwide Favourite Artist – GOT7
Best of Next Artist Award – Monsta X & BlackPink
Best Producer – Black Eyed Pilseung
Best Asian Style – EXO
On top of all of that:
Best International Producer: Timbaland

Awards first. Thought it was okay. There were some which I didn’t agree with such as Best Music Video, Best Band, Best Rap, Best New Male Artist but those who won those awards also deserved it as well. I think the Daesangs (Song, Album and Artist of the Year awards) were what everyone expected, so no surprises there. I honestly did not expect Crush to win Best Male Vocal Performance. Clearly, he didn’t as well.

In terms of the performances, this has to be one of the messiest MAMA awards that I have ever seen. Incorrect artists names were written on the screen, performances were unappealing, an anticipated performance was removed. And that is probably what we saw on the outside. Imagine what happened behind the curtains! The worst performance was, by far, Timbaland’s collaboration with Eric Nam. Eric Nam put in his fair share of effort. Timbaland, like everyone is saying, had no idea what he was doing there. And besides his award, we don’t either.

So whose performances did I like? Seventeen & GFriend’s collaboration, I.O.I and Twice’s stage (just minus the cringeworthy introduction) and BTS’s stage. Everything else just seemed a little underwhelming. You can judge and watch the performances above. The playlist only contains Korean songs, so Timbaland’s collab with Eric Nam is not there. As mentioned above, MAMA is one of the biggest ceremonies of the year, so I did expect a lot. Maybe I am just harsh or unappreciative. Sadly, I just was not enjoying the stages this year.

Okay, so that is my recap and thoughts on the MAMA awards. Comment below with your favourite performance! Maybe you enjoyed the show more than me.