MAMA 2020: Highlighting Best Performances of Major K-Pop Music Award Show

This year one of the biggest annual award shows in Asia was held with no live audience due to Covid-19 but will be memorable for some of the most impressive acts and collabs we have seen so far.

The Prince and the Queen: Taemin and BoA

SHINee's youngest member Lee Taemin presented a sensual and impressive dance performance for the songs from his last releases Never Gonna Dance Again: Act 1 and Act 2. It included tracks “Idea”, “Criminal” and “Heaven”.

The talented artist got the award for “Best Dance Performance Male Solo” with 'Criminal'.

He also appeared in the performance of legendary singer BoA for her songs “No.1” and “Only One''.

The renowned Queen of K-Pop marked the 20th anniversary since her debut in 2001 with her 10th Korean album named “Better”, which was released on the 1st of December. She also received the “Inspired Achievement” award.

Femme Fatale: Hwasa and Jessi

Two outstanding artists and performers on the Korean scene who avoid the usual Korean feminine standards - rapper Jessi and vocalist of popular girl band Mamamoo Hwasa not only received awards but also did a collaboration on stage.

Best Dance Performance Female Solo went to Jessi with her viral song “Nunu Nana” from her latest album “Nuna”, recorded and produced on PSY's record label “P-nation”, which now is a home agency for the artist.

Mamamoo's Hwasa got the Best Dance Performance Solo award for her first solo album and lead song “Maria”, which got a lot of stans of Hwasa herself and Mamamoo fans as well.

Both artists made an amazing and audacious performance of “Gang” to prove their outstanding image and talents.

So Many Beautiful Faces: NCT

SM Entertainment's project NCT put on performances this year for every unit they have: Chinese WayV, flexible NCT U, teenager unit NCT Dream, main unit NCT 127 and the whole band shared with the audience the first live stage of their latest single “Resonance”.

The band was awarded two nominations - as Favourite Male Group and Worldwide Fans' Choice Top 10, and the Chinese subunit WayV got the Favorite Asian Artist award.

[#2020MAMA_Moment] FAVORITE MALE GROUP #nct

You made it! Honorable winner of the night!🏆
#2020MAMA #MAMA #Mnet pic.twitter.com/Kf3rvfy68A

— MAMA(엠넷아시안뮤직어워즈) (@MnetMAMA) December 6, 2020

Young blood: Stray Kids, The Boyz, Ateez

Members of the new idol generation groups - Hyunjin of Stray Kids, San of Ateez and Juyeon of The Boyz surprised the audience with a stage dance collab and the remarkably dark performances of their own groups.

Ateez didn't leave the stage empty-handed: the group was named Worldwide Fans' Choice Top 10 and Discovery of the Year.

Monsters of Awards - BTS

The Korean wave phenomena BTS gathered a bunch of awards and Daesangs (grand prizes given to artists who had the biggest selling digital and physical releases) this year as always: Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Worldwide Icon of the Year, Best Male Group, Best Music Video and Best Dance Performance Male Group. The band proved to be the right choice of the professional panel and online voting by fans, giving the audience a powerful performance of their latest hits “On”, “Dynamite”, and “Life Goes On”.