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| Korean-Japanese project band IZ*ONE won the best new female artist of the year at 2018 MAMA Premiere in Korea held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Monday. Courtesy of Mnet |
By Kwak Yeon-soo
Rising rookies Stray Kids and IZ*ONE topped the best new artist awards at 2018 MAMA Premiere in Korea held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Seoul, Monday.
Nine-member boy band Stray Kids was named the best new male artist of the year while Korean-Japanese project band IZ*ONE ― made up of 12 finalists from Mnet's idol survival show "Produce 48" ― won its very first best new female artist award.
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| Nine-member boy band Stray Kids won the best new male artist of the year at 2018 MAMA Premiere in Korea held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Monday. Courtesy of Mnet |
It is the fourth trophy for Stray Kids, which has won best rookie awards at three other major music awards including Asia Artist Awards, MBC Plus X Genie Music Awards and Soribada Best K-Music Awards.
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| (G)I-DLE was presented with the Best of Next Artist Award at 2018 MAMA Premiere in Korea held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Monday. Courtesy of Mnet |
(G)I-DLE, which many expected to win the best new female artist category as it ranked first place on the online voting by taking over 50 percent, was presented with the Best of Next Artist Award.
Regarding this outcome, Mnet official assured that "the evaluation system was assessed fairly under strict criteria. (G)I-DLE gained high scores in online voting, but they fell behind IZ*ONE in album sales." Multiple factors determine the winner, including online votes, expert evaluation, album and digital songs sales, music video views and live broadcast votes.
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| Wanna One was given the DDP best trend award at 2018 MAMA Premiere in Korea held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Monday. Courtesy of Mnet |
Wanna One, which performed at the event, was given the DDP best trend award. After receiving the award, the members hinted they may be disbanding soon by saying, "Thank you Wannable (fan club) for giving us so much love. Our contract is coming to an end, but we have amazing performances prepared for 2018 MAMA in Japan and Hong Kong. Please look forward to our performances and support us throughout."
Under the Asia music category, best new Asian artist awards were presented to Dean Ting from China, Hiragana Keyakizaka46 from Japan, The Toys from Thailand, Orange from Vietnam and Marion Jola from Indonesia.
As for the best professional category, BTS team took home four awards, including best producer of the year, best choreographer of the year, best art director of the year and best executive producer of the year.
Pdogg, chief producer at Big Hit Entertainment, was named best producer while the best choreographer award went to Son Sung-deuk, an in-house choreographer at the same label. Both have worked closely with BTS since the group's 2013 debut. Art director MU:E won the best art director award for work on BTS' "Fake Love" released in May. Bang Si-hyuk, the founder and CEO of Big Hit Entertainment, was named the best executive producer of the year.
BTS will be attending the second and third award ceremonies to be held in Japan and Hong Kong on Wednesday and Friday, respectively. It has been confirmed that BTS, MAMAMOO, NU'EST W, Twice, Monsta X, Wanna One, Stray Kids and IZ*One will perform at Saitama Super Arena in Japan on Wednesday.
The biggest K-pop lineup is saved for Hong Kong on Friday night, which includes BTS, GOT7, MOMOLAND, SEVENTEEN, Roy Kim, Oh My Girl, WJSN, Sunmi, Chungha, Heize, Wanna One, IZ*ONE, Swings, BewhY, Tiger JK and Yoon Mi-rae.
MAMA, marking its 10th anniversary, has successfully established itself as one of Korea's big four music award ceremonies by strategically focusing on digital sales and public votes to determine its award winners. The highlights of MAMA awards for artist of the year, song of the year and album of the year will be announced at 2018 MAMA in Hong Kong.
