On 11 December, for the first time in two years, K-pop fans in South Korea were able to see their beloved idols perform in-person on stage, but with pandemic guidelines observed.
Taking place in Paju, Gyeonggi-do, the 2021 Mnet Asian Music Awards gathered the best artists in K-pop on one stage, and here is the list of winners.
The Worldwide Fans Choice Awards Top 10 was taken by Stray Kids, NCT Dream, NCT 127, BTS,TXT, ENHYPEN, Treasure, Seventeen, and Twice, and the only female K-pop artist - LISA from BLACKPINK.
As for Best Female artist and Best Male Artist - these were taken by IU and Baekhyun from EXO.
Baekhyun immediately thanked his devoted fans on his personal account on Twitter.
The sweet-voiced queen IU also won Best Vocal Performance and Best Collaboration as a featured artist in Nakka by AKMU.
The New Female and Male artist went to ENHYPEN and Aespa.
The latter also won Best Dance Performance by a Female Group this year.
The Best Female Group this year became TWICE. The Best Male Group award was shared by BTS, TXT, Seventeen, Stray Kids and NCT’s subunits - NCT127 and NCT Dream. As for NCT, they treated fans to the first ever live performance of “Universe (Let's Play Ball)” from the upcoming album “Universe”, which is set to be released on 14 December, as well as other hit songs.
The K-pop phenomenon BTS won nine awards this year: Artist Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Worldwide Icon Of The Year, Best Male Group, Best Dance Performance Male Group, Best Music Video, TikTok Favorite Moment, and Worldwide Fans’ Choice Top 10.
This year, MAMA 2021 also had a surprising opening ceremony, with the best performers from different K-pop acts: Stray Kids’ Hyunjin, ATEEZ’s Wooyoung, TXT’s Yeonjun, ITZY’s Yeji, Aespa’s Karina, and ENHYPEN’s Heeseung participated and amazed the audience.
And the most delightful surprise was given this year for the fans of Wanna One - a popular boy band that reunited on the MAMA stage and pleased the eyes of the audience with the first performance since being disbanded three years ago.