Current K-Pop group standings in the most important election of the year: MAMA 2016

With only 24 days until the event, the current MAMA standings are extremely tight and fans are getting competitive. 

The annual Mnet Asia Music Awards ceremony will be taking place at the Asia World-Expo in Hong Kong for the fifth year in a row on December 2nd. Last yearEXO and BIGBANG brought home most of the big awards, with BIGBANG winning Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Music Video, and Worldwide Favorite Artist Award, and EXO winning Global Male Fanclub Choice, Best Asian Star Award, Male Group, Best Asian Style, and Album of the Year.

Mnet has released the nominees for the award ceremony and fans have actively engaged in voting and even starting fan wars. Currently, the rankings of the votes have been extremely tight between two groups with a large fandom- EXO and BTS.

The judging criteria for the awards are based on several different categories.

mama judging criteria

Many netizens have predicted which artists would win based on the judging criteria.

Here are the current standings of the online voting!

Best New Male Artist: NCT 127

NCT 127 debuted this July with “Fire Truck”

Best New Female Artist: BLACKPINK

BLACKPINK debuted in August this year with title tracks “Boombayah” and “Whistle”

Best Male Group: EXO

EXO debuted in 2012 with “Mama”

Best Female Group: Red Velvet

Red Velvet debuted in 2014 with “Happiness”

Best Male Artist: ZICO

Zico from Block B officially debuted as a solo artist in 2015 with “Tough Cookie”

Best Female Artist: Taeyeon

Taeyeon from Girl's Generation debuted as a solo artist in 2015 with "I"
Taeyeon from Girl’s Generation debuted as a solo artist in 2015 with “I”

Best Dance Performance Solo: Taemin 

Taemin from SHINee debuted as a solo artist in 2014 with “Danger”

Best Dance Performance Male Group: EXO

 

Best Dance Performance Female Group: Red Velvet

Red Velvet

Best Vocal Performance Male Solo: Eric Nam

Eric debuted in 2013 with "Heaven's Door"
Eric debuted in 2013 with “Heaven’s Door”

Best Vocal Performance Female Solo: Taeyeon

Taeyeon Why

Best Vocal Performance Group: BEAST

BEAST debuted in 2009 with “Bad Girl”

Best Band Performance: F.T. Island

F.T. Island debuted with “Love Sick” in 2007

Best Rap Performance: GARY

Gary of Leessang debuted as a solo artist in 2014 with “Shower Later”

Best Collaboration: Dream- Suzy, Baekhyun 

Suzy and Baekhyun - "Dream" - SMTOWN's Official Facebook
The collaboration single “Dream” with miss A’s Suzy and EXO’s Baekhyun was released in January 2016

Best Music Video: BTS

BTS debuted in 2013 with “No More Dream”

Best OST: This Love (Descendants of the Sun)- DAVICHI

http://www.kbs.co.kr/drama/sun/
Image: “Descendants of the Sun” / KBS

HotelsCombined Artist of the Year: EXO

http://exo-jp.net/news/detail.php?id=1040180

HotelsCombined Song of the Year: EXO 

Image: SM Entertainment
Image: SM Entertainment

Aside from than the awards, there is also a star cheer event in which voters receive stars to support their favorite artists. The male and female artist who receives the most stars every day will have their name displayed on a banner on the site. Currently, the male artist with the highest star count is EXO, while the female artist with the highest start count is MAMAMOO.

Don’t forget to vote at mama.mwave.me!