The three day Mnet Asian Music Awards concluded in Hong Kong on Friday with BTS being the winners for the biggest award of all: Artist of the Year. The group also won the second most valuable prize, the Album of the Year award for their project Love Yourself: Tear. Despite this the group did not win Song of the Year, as girl group TWICE won the award for their song “What Is Love?”
The Third Day of The MAMA Awards Concludes
BTS’ Success At The Award Show
BTS was brought to tears during their acceptance speech for the Artist of the Year award. During the speech, group member Jin revealed that the group was considering disbanding earlier in the year due to being “quite tired, mentally.” This was the third year in a row that the group has been nominated and won the biggest of all awards. 2018 was a year of domestic dominance and global expansion for the group. Whilst releasing the two major tracks “Fake Love” and “IDOL” this year, the group began its world tour which included a concert at MetLife Stadium in New York. The music video for “IDOL” was also awarded the TikTok Best Music Video award earlier in the evening.
TWICE Wins Female Group of the Year, Among Other Awards
TWICE, who were awarded Song of the Year also won Best Female Group, beating Blackpink, Red Velvet, Mamamoo, Momoland and GFriend. “What Is Love?,” the same song that won Song of the Year was the winner for Best Dance Performance from a Female Group. The male counterpart to that award was given to Seventeen and their song “Oh My!” Seventeen’s original soundtrack for A-Teen made the group win the award Best OST.
Wanna One Wins Male Group of the Year
Similar to last year, Wanna One won Best Male Group, going over GOT7, NCT 127, NU’EST W, Seventeen and BTS. The group’s sub-unit “Triple Position” also won the award for Best Unit, specifically for the song “Kangaroo.” The group is set to disband in early 2019 as they were a temporary project.
Soloist Awards
Sunmi walked home with the Best Female Artist award. She was up against many artists who had an explosive year, those being IU, Chungha, Taeyeon and Heize. This year for her was a continuation of the success she got from 2017 hit “Gashina,” where the choreography from the song went viral. With songs “Heroine” and “Siren,” the soloist continued her success. Ballad singer Roy Kim won Best Male Artist, beating Dean, Park Hyo-shin, Zico and Hwang Chi-yeul.
Smaller Awards On The Show
Despite Chungha not winning the Best Female Artist award she did win Best Solo Dance Performance for the song “Roller Coaster.” Heize also didn’t leave empty-handed as her song “Didn’t Know Me” won Best Vocal Performance from a solo act. The group version of the same award was won by iKON and their song “Love Scenario.”
Best Band Performance was given to Hyukoh for “Love Ya!” They beat DAY6, who was favored to win since they are owned by JYP Entertainment. Zico’s song “Soulmate feat. (IU)” won him the Best Hip-Hop & Urban Music award. The other two major awards were for best new male and female artist, and were awarded on Monday in Korea.
The Show In Conclusion
At the end of the show, the biggest group of all was BTS. The group was given many awards, including some of the most important ones. When it came to performances the event only showcased a side of K-Pop as YG and SM Entertainment chose to not attend the event this year. The next big award show takes place on January 5th and 6th as the Golden Disk Awards will be hosted at the Gocheok SkyDome in Seoul. Before then many network channels will air their end of song music festivals, with the KBS Song Festival for 2018 being scheduled for the 28th of December with SBS Gayo Daejeon taking place before on Christmas Day.
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