So MAMA has changed its award criteria again this year.
The biggest change is that domestic and international streaming now carry equal weight, while judges’ scores have become even more important for certain categories. For example, the Song of the Year (Daesang) criteria have changed as follows:
- Judges’ scores: Increased from 40% to 50%
- Domestic streaming: Decreased from 40% to 25%
- Global streaming: Increased from 20% to 25%
In other words, domestic performance now matters much less, global streaming carries more weight, and judges have even greater influence over the final results.
This could significantly change the SOTY race. For the entire year, Hwasa’s Good Goodbye was a frontrunner thanks to its incredible domestic performance, with NMIXX’s Blue Valentine trailing behind in second place. However, with domestic streaming now accounting for a much smaller percentage of the score, Hwasa’s chances took a MAJOR hit.
Meanwhile, BTS’s SWIM has already achieved massive international streaming numbers, giving it a significant advantage under the new criteria. SWIM‘s domestic performance has lagged behind all the other nominees in the top 10 by a large margin, but the combination of increased weight given to global streaming and much less importance in domestic performance now makes BTS a much stronger contender for SOTY.
Similar changes have also been made to Artist of the Year (Daesang) and other artist categories, with domestic and international performance now carrying equal weight.
As for Album of the Year (Daesang), the award is based on 40% judges’ evaluation and 60% physical album sales. On top of that, only albums that have sold at least one million copies are eligible. This effectively eliminates most girl groups from the competition before the judging process even begins.
Historically, boy groups have generally had much higher Spotify streams and incomparably higher physical album sales than girl groups. Girl groups, on the other hand, have often performed much stronger on domestic chart, attracting casual listeners and the general public beyond their dedicated fandoms.
So what happens when domestic performance matters less, international streaming receives more weight, and physical album sales take up so much of the criteria? Boy groups are naturally placed at a huge advantage under these criteria while girl groups take a hit in their areas of strength. It has always been harder for girl groups to win Daesangs at MAMA, but these changes make it even more difficult. And with similar changes affecting other award categories this disadvantage extends beyond just the Daesangs as well.
What do you guys think about the changes?
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