Mnet Asian Music Awards 2014 - MAMA In Hong Kong

Wednesday 3rd December saw the sixteenth annual Mnet Asian Music Awards take place at the AsiaWorld Arena in Hong Kong.

Once again, the most popular K-Pop groups and artists were celebrated, with awards being voted on by fans online. As always, it was a star-studded event attended by numerous Korean pop stars.

Award winners plus YouTube videos follow "The Performances" section.
Congratulations to all who took part!


The Performances

The show opened with a performance from Dancing9, with a routine titled "Beat Box", featuring dancers dancing to a medley of songs, including  Bony M's "Sunny", NKOTB's "Step By Step", James Brown's "Get Up", and Michael Jackson's "Beat It".

This was followed by a couple of hip-hop performances "연결고리 YGGR" performed by Illionaire Records featuring rappers BOBBY, The Quiett, and Dok2. They were followed by MASTA WU featuring Dok2 and BOBBY performing "Come Here".



After this came two awards; Best New Artist and Best Dance Performance Solo.

Once these were awarded, we were treated to a performance from Girl's Day and AILEE; this act being called "Last Fantasy". First up was Girl's Day with "Something", and then AILEE with "Don't Touch Me". Both Girl's Day and AILEE then took to the stage together with a joint performance of the song "Problem".



Two more awards followed, and then on came Epik High and WINNER; their section called "Beyond The Screen". Winner performed "Empty", and then Epik High performed "Happen Ending" with the soothing voice of Yoo Inna. They then followed this with the funky sounds of "Born Hater". They were joined on stage by B.I, and then Song Mino of Winner. Soon, BOBBY returned to the stage to perform with them.

The 2013 Mnet Asian Music Awards: Who Won This Year?

Twenty days after we saw a K-Pop group win an award at the YouTube Music Awards, Friday 22 November saw the fifteenth annual Mnet Asian Music Awards, which is pretty much totally dedicated to K-Pop music (with a few international acts too). The ceremony took place at the Asia World Expo Arena in Hong Kong, and was broadcast live on YouTube.

There were numerous categories, recognising the most popular K-Pop groups and solo performers of the year, as voted by fans online.

Watch the awards below (red carpet show to begin with, followed by award show start at 2hr12m):


Award winners and some videos to show you of who they are (if you didn't already know...) appear after "The Performances" section.

The Performances

The star-studded show opened with rock band Jaurim and an "Enter the Dragon" version of their song "Icarus", who were joined on stage by Lee Han-Eul and Jay Park, in a combination of rap and rock. I thought it worked quite effectively, and enjoyed the song.

The show also featured performances by pop duo Trouble Maker with "Now", boy band INFINITE singing "BTD", flipping and somersaulting all over the place before performing "Destiny". They were followed by Hong Kong singer/actor Aaron Kwok performing "Yi Ge Hui Wu". The next performance was by girl group 2NE1 performing "Lonely" and new song "Missing You",  followed by Swedish pop duo Icona Pop who performed "All Night" and were also joined on stage by 2NE1's CL on their hit "I Love It".

Did K-Pop Win At The YouTube Music Awards?

Tonight (3 November, I find myself writing this now at 2am, after the show finished after midnight here in the UK) saw the first ever YouTube Music Awards ceremony take place. The event was streamed live on YouTube, and was presented by Hollywood actor / musician Jason Schwartzman and comedian / musician Reggie Watts. The ceremony itself was largely unscripted and improvised, and featured live performances by Arcade Fire, Walk Off The Earth, Lady Gaga, Avicii, M.I.A., and Eminem.

Over the last few weeks, YouTube viewers have been voting by posting and sharing the official video links of their favourite nominees to Twitter, Google+, and Facebook; the more shares each nominee got, and for every subsequent share, the more votes the respective videos accumulated.

As I wrote in my previous "K-Pop At The YouTube Music Awards" blog post, we had seen that K-Pop had made quite an impact over the last year, and in doing so had made an appearance among the nominees in four of the six categories.

Both PSY and Girls' Generation were up for the Video of the Year award, with "Gentleman" and "I Got A Boy" respectively. PSY was also in the running for the Artist of the Year award, and his song "Gangnam Style" was nominated for the YouTube Phenomenon award.

"Gangnam Style" was also featured in the Response of the Year award, for Jayesslee's acoustic cover version.

Results

K-Pop At The YouTube Music Awards - Vote For Nominees Before November 3

Pretty much everyone knows about YouTube of course; even my parents, so if you've visited the site at any time recently, it probably hasn't escaped your attention that YouTube are holding their very own awards ceremony on November 3.

This year sees the first ever YouTube Music Awards (YTMA's), and fans of Asian music may be pleased to know that K-Pop has made an appearance in the nominees of four of the six different categories.

In recent years, K-Pop has become hugely popular the world over, and seems to have an ever growing online presence. It has had quite an impact in the mainstream media, thanks largely to PSY's worldwide smash hit song; the infectious "Gangnam Style", released last year. Whether or not K-Pop, or other Asian music can continue to make any more of an impact remains to be seen, but with K-Pop girl group Girls' Generation also making an appearance in the list of potential winners, it certainly is encouraging.



The six different awards categories are: Video of the Year, Artist of the Year, YouTube Breakthrough, YouTube Phenomenon, Innovation of the Year, and Response of the Year.