Netizens Claim the 2023 MAMA Awards Were a Letdown

In recent discussions within an online community, the consensus seems to be that the 2023 MAMA Awards were a disappointment. Several netizens cite a myriad of issues surrounding the event, from the quality of the artist lineup to the overall impact of the awards ceremony this year.

2023 MAMA Awards Underwhelming?

Once a highly anticipated event in the Korean music industry, the MAMA Awards have been celebrated since 1999 for honoring accomplished K-pop artists. With lively performances and the opportunity for fans to witness their favorite artists receiving recognition, the award show is known for generating significant buzz each year.

However, this year's MAMA Awards have been met with considerable scrutiny among netizens on various forums. One original post highlighted that the live broadcast only managed to attract a meager 40k viewers worldwide, while criticizing the artist lineup.

"They only had 40K viewers across the entire world watching lol. The lineup was indeed bad," commented the original poster.

This sentiment was echoed by other community members, with some expressing their lack of awareness about the event's occurrence. A number of comments pointed out the absence of big names like BTS, suggesting that their participation alone could have significantly boosted viewership numbers.

• "I didn't even know that MAMA happened."
• "They could've boosted their views to at least 10 million with one BTS member alone."
• "This shows that BTS not attending really does create a huge gap."
• "Meanwhile, back when BTS appeared during the third gen, they were drawing 700k to 800k views. It was a legendary time."
• "It's because there wasn't a single star."

International fans offered additional reasons for the perceived failure of this year's MAMAs, referring to the lack of stage presence among performers, unexciting collaborations, and an unfair distribution of stage time among artists.

• "Honestly, award shows in general began flopping when idols started to perform like they were at a weekly music show, with a dance break and remix as add-ons."
• "Award shows used to be fun since there were special stages, fun collabs, when idols actually sang live and brought something new to their performance."
• "It flopped because they gave chart-topping girl groups like (G)I-DLE and LE SSERAFIM five minutes to perform one song but let boy groups like TREASURE perform two or more songs."

Another perspective offered was that Mnet, the network behind MAMA, may have created too many conflicts with various companies, resulting in a less compelling lineup for the show.

"Mnet has burned too many bridges with too many companies to be able to constantly deliver good shows and lineups." "I think they also underestimate the pull third-gen groups have with viewers. They should've tried harder to get them to attend or at least perform on the stage."

As the conversation continues, netizens and fans alike are contributing their insights and expressing their disappointment, raising questions about the future direction of the MAMA Awards.

MAMA, Awards, K-pop