The MAMA Awards are arguably one of the most popular music awards in Asia. With the new awards season, the producers of MAMA are continuing to express their ambition to become the 'Grammy Korea'.
Fans rebuked the MAMA Awards for its unfairness and arbitrary voting system, among other things, when the award show revealed its ambitious dream of becoming the Korean Grammys. One moment at MAMA 2014 was even taken as an example.
The MAMA Awards are arguably one of the most popular music awards in Asia. With the new awards season, MAMA's producers are continuously expressing their ambition to become a "Korean Grammy".
After this announcement, Mnet received strong reactions from netizens. The main reason is the unresolved issues in every season of MAMA. Most of the time, the problem has to do with the fairness of the event or a lack of it in counting votes and awarding prizes.
For example, during the audience voting period, MAMA announced the shutdown of the voting system to screen out fraudulent votes. The number of votes removed varies from artist to artist. In fact, the difference in votes revoked could reach millions. This caused the artist with the top votes to fall out. Many fans reported having their vote removed even though they had proof that their vote was legit.
Recently, MAMA also presented a new award category with no clear goals or criteria. Netizens believe this is a business between entertainment companies and MAMA to allow their artists to win more, and as a result, achieve more.
There are also no persuasive arguments in choosing a winner. In 2015, Park Jin Young won the Best Male Artist award although he did not perform as well as Jung Yong Hwa and Kyuhyun who were nominated for the same category. In 2014, Sistar won Best Girl Group against the top two girl groups at the time, Girls' Generation and 2NE1.
While MAMA put out statements every year claiming they will fight for more equality, the awards shows rarely live up to their promises. This has led to a visible decline in public interest. Therefore, the most that MAMA can do is improve their quality. (wk/goddess)
