“The MAMA Awards” Biggest Controversies Of All Time
Each year, the MAMA Awards celebrates the achievements of K-Pop artists during the awards cycle. While winning an award can be a happy occasion, more often than not, the lead-up and actual awards ceremony can be stressful due to controversies.
Here are some of the MAMA Awards’ most significant controversies.
1. Wiz Khalifa vs Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon
In 2016, American musician Wiz Khalifa was scheduled to perform his hit song “See You Again” with Girls’ Generation Taeyeon. Taeyeon backed out of the performance, with Wiz Khalifa finding out just minutes before his performance.
Wiz Khalifa made a series of tweets referencing this, leading to confusion over what truly happened among fans.
The fact that Teyeon backed out of our performance caught me off guard too but never accept rejection as failure.
— Taylor Gang World Leader (@wizkhalifa) December 2, 2016
Never apologize for being yourself and never let anyone else's self projection determine your worth.
— Taylor Gang World Leader (@wizkhalifa) December 2, 2016
Exclusive coverage of what really happened left several questions unanswered that remain to this day.
2. Boycotts By Artists
In 2007, Shinwha‘s Minwoo and Hyesung canceled their appearance at the MAMA Awards ceremony one hour before, saying they did not trust the event to select winners fairly.
SM Entertainment and Inwoo Production also boycotted the 2009 event, with SM citing Girls’ Generation’s lack of wins on MCountdown despite charting at number one for several weeks.
3. Mistreatment
Fans alleged that ATEEZ was victim to poor camera work and other preventable technical difficulties, in addition to a member being given a malfunctioning microphone.
TXT also suffered poor camera work, and Soobin was cut off during the acceptance speech for Worldwide Fans’ Choice Top 10.
soobin’s smile even though his speech got cut ☹️ i’m so sad (mama fuck u rlly) pic.twitter.com/8yIcnXQh2P
— ·˚ ༘ ✘ (@txtlace) December 11, 2021
4. Difference In Waiting Rooms
Dispatch reported that idols participating in the 2020 ceremony were allegedly forced to wait in their transportation while actors presenting for the show were given waiting rooms and catering.
MAMA responded to the allegations, saying that due to COVID-19, they could not give every artist a waiting area.
5. Faulty Voting System
In 2017, MAMA was forced to temporarily stop its international online voting system to review and repair issues, ultimately resulting in millions of votes being deleted from the system, changing some placements online.
Only time will tell if this year’s ceremony will add to the list.
