Voting For The 2013 MAMA Awards Begins, With A System More Welcoming To International K-Pop Fans
Mnet takes notice of the explosion of K-Pop fans outside of Korea by simplifying and translating the voting process.
The 2012 MAMA Awards were epic, even if my experience of watching the awards was via a live stream, while communicating with other writers and K-Pop fans in the United States through social media. Although, viewers in the United States and other countries outside of Asia were a distance away, they shared in the excitement of witnessing their favorite K-Pop artists on the Red Carpet and in performance. The experience of detached participation continued for other award shows and for the numerous Gayo Daejun performances.
The move to create a more unique voting process for international supporters of Korean pop comes in a year where more major tours are venturing to areas outside of Asia.While the voting process for 2012 MAMA was so painstaking for K-Pop fans who were not fluent in Korean that there was an overwhelming amount of online tutorials breaking down the steps, Mnet has made it incredibly simple to vote for the 2013 MAMA Awards. It only takes ten minutes, after linking to a Facebook account, to start voting and see the results of previous votes in the United States and Europe.
MAMA 2012 brought amazing performances by artists and groups from all of the top agencies. Highlights included Super Junior's medley including their enthusiastic performance of "Spy", Epik High embodied the characters of Batman for "Don't Hate, and the mash up performances of BigBang with G-Dragon for "Crayon" and "Fantastic Baby".
G-Dragon leads the nominees for categories, with voting for the BigBang leader taking place for Best Male Artist, Best Dance Performance Male Solo for "Crooked", Artist of the Year, UnionPay Song For The Year for "Coup D'Etat", and a nomination for the Nissan Juke Best Music Video for "Coup D'Etat". SM Entertainment's EXO is nominated for Artist of The Year, Best Male Group, Best Dance Male Group, and UnionPay Song For The Year for "Growl". Drunken Tiger member Yoon MiRae is nominated in the Best Original Soundtrack category for the phenomenal song "Touch Love" from the "Master's Sun" OST, as well as in the Best Rap Performance category with MFBTY for "Sweet Dream".
With the 2013 MAMA Awards, Mnet has recognized how many international fans of K-Pop have rallied for votes and woke up while the rest of their country was asleep to see their favorite performers. The MAMA Awards will take place on November 22nd at 8PM KST in Hong Kong's Asia World Expo.What will be the most talked about performances of the 2013 MAMA Awards and who will take home the most awards?
