K-POP KORNER: The 2014 Mnet Asian Music Awards

KELCEY LORENZO WRITES – On December 4, the 2014 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) were broadcast live from Hong Kong. Known as one of the biggest annual award shows of the year, the 2014 MAMA rewards groups and solo artists who have made exceptional contributions to the Korean Pop music industry in the past year.

The winners were determined by a combination of album/digital sales numbers, a panel of Korean and International judges, and online voting. Fans were able to vote for their favorite groups once a day in 17 categories, which included Best Dance Performance (Male and Female) and Artist of the Year. According to MAMA’s official website, over 59 million votes had already been cast since voting opened on October 27.  Although MAMA is a Korean music award show, the majority of votes came from China, which contributed over 30 million votes.

Fans also showed their support for artists by giving them virtual roses after submitting their ballots. The artist with the most roses at the end of each day got a promotional banner on the 2014 MAMA homepage.

But not everyone was pleased with this year’s show. Many fans were upset about their favorite artist having few or no nominations and took  to Twitter to voice their concerns. One fan of girl group f(x) tweeted, “f(x) has sold more than 80,000 copies of ‘Red Light,’ yet surprisingly, they’re not nominated for any awards at MAMA.”

Despite the conflicting opinions about nominees and winners, most fans were looking forward to special performances by the nominees. K-Pop super stars G-Dragon and Taeyang of Big Bang, Exo, IU, Sistar, and Infinite performed for this year’s show.

 

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