2024 MAMA Awards in Review: BIGBANG’s Mega Comeback After 9 Years?! NEWJEANS Terminated Their Contract with ADOR?! Music Bank Global Festival
From November 21st to 23rd, the 2024 MAMA Awards took place. On November 21st, it was live in Los Angeles, California at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The opening sequence featured performances from K-pop groups TWS, ILLIT, and RIIZE who performed “Dynamite”, “Heart Shaker”, and “Kick It”. Other performances included Young Posse performing “XXL” and “Ate That”, Katseye alongside the Los Angeles Rams Cheerleaders performing “Debut” and “Touch”, TWS performing “Plot Twist” and “Oh Mymy: 7s”, ILLIT performing “Magnetic” and “Cherish (My Love)”, and RIIZE performing “Get a Guitar” and “Boom Boom Bass”. The show ended with J. Y. Park performing many of his classic hits from the 2000’s, including “She was Pretty” and “Honey”.
I was watching the show that night while they were playing K-pop music videos. The music video I was watching was JENNIE’s “You & Me”. I only watched the MAMA Awards for a short time, probably until after ILLIT performed “Cherish (My Love). The show on November 21st was decent and okay because there were a lot of supporters in Los Angeles cheering on the K-pop groups.
Going back in time when I first heard that the 2024 MAMA Awards was going to be in Los Angeles, I thought that all the K-pop groups would come to Hollywood to perform, but I did not realize that Osaka, Japan was also a venue for the event. I was pretty close to purchasing a ticket for the MAMA Awards show in Los Angeles, but I did not realize that it was the day before my actual radio show with KSSU, Oriental Vibes.
I have watched the videos from November 21st on YouTube the day after and performances were also good as well. For RIIZE, they will always be 7, despite the drama Seunghan was in around September and October. It also looks like that “Cherish (My Love)” by ILLIT is the new “Magnetic” of the season. That song is a vibe and will always be in my playlist. Expect to hear that song on Oriental Vibes on one of the final dates.
On November 22nd, the award show took place in Osaka, Japan at the Kyocera Dome. Now for this particular day, there were performances from YEONJUN, Me:I, BoyNextDoor, Toenze, IZNA, Lee Young-ji, PLAVE, IVE, ENHYPEN, TREASURE, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, and concluded with ROSE and Bruno Mars performing “APT”.
The performance I was compelled and eager to watch was YEONJUN’s “GGUM”. The robots that were moving and the big background on an animatronic coming from the sky into the dome was top-tier and crazy. YEONJUN’s dancing never changes and I believe this performance was fire. It probably should be “Performance of the Year”. When YEONJUN opens the 2nd day of the MAMA Awards, he mentions before performing “GGUM”, “HEY MAMA! YOU READY TO GET IT DOWN?!” and the crowd screams very loud. When I watched this video for the first time, I got goosebumps. I was like YEONJUN knows how to get the crowd screaming on a Friday. This reminded me of myself when I do my show every Friday morning as I try to get the crowd dancing at 9 in the morning.
The other performance I was surprised about was Bruno Mars and ROSE performing “APT”, which I call the new “Song of the Year” besides aespa’s “Supernova”. Bruno and ROSE’s performance of “APT” was one of the best performances yet. Besides the performance, the way they walked up the stage when claiming their trophy was elegant. You got ROSE talking in Korean and seconds later, Bruno Mars starts to speak Korean. He said “Hi” and “How are you” in Korean. Now, this part made me laugh a lot and Rose was also surprised that Bruno started talking in Korean as well. Friday’s show was a good start and a blast. This particular show should be titled “MAMA Awards Chapter 1: 2024 in Review”.
The Saturday show was TOO FIRE!!! I HAVE A LOT TO SAY ABOUT THIS DAY’S SHOW!
For the 3rd and last day of the 2024 MAMA Awards, it still took place in Osaka, Japan at the same venue. On this day, there were performances from INI, Bibi & Ahn Jae-hyun, Meovv, ZEROBASEONE, (G)I-dle, Byeon Woo-seok, G-Dragon, BIG BANG, aespa, and SEVENTEEN. This lineup was fire!!! ESPECIALLY THE COMEBACK OF BIGBANG!!!
According to many netizens, BigBang’s MAMA performance was one of their first comeback performances in nine years!!! In the show, they performed their new song “Home Sweet Home”. I have been listening to this song nonstop lately and it is a song I am totally going to play on one of the season finale dates for Oriental Vibes Season 1.
I did indeed hear some rumors from attendees that (G)I-dle’s MAMA performance signals their disbandment in 2025. I do not know if this is true, which I hope it is not. If (G)I-dle disbands, I am going to cry a lot. I totally love their songs “WIFE” and “I Do”. And obviously, I have to talk about SEVENTEEN!!! The day of the show, I saw an Instagram post from Xu Minghao or THE8 with SEVENTEEN where he was holding about 5 trophies from MAMA. SEVENTEEN performed songs “Maestro”, “Ash”, and “Love, Money, Fame”.
As the show comes to an end, the Daesang winner was announced. So basically, every year, the Daesang award is awarded to the Best Artist of the Year. Last year, NEWJEANS received the Daesang award, breaking BTS’ record of receiving the award since 2016. BTS received the Daesang award from 2016 to 2022 and NEWJEANS receives the award in 2023. For 2024, SEVENTEEN receives the Daesang award. When SEVENTEEN won the award, they were emotional and crying because this is their first time receiving it. Confetti and applause came down as the MAMA Awards of 2024 come to an end.
This year’s MAMA Awards was a spectacular and quite different from the previous years before. I feel like more K-pop artists released singles and albums in 2024. I wonder what 2025 is going to bring, since BTS will be back from the military.
Now, let’s talk about the latest news in K-pop.
NEWJEANS terminated their contract with ADOR?!!!
On Thanksgiving morning, I wake up to the news that NewJeans terminated their contract with ADOR because of mistreatment. Upon hearing this news, I was very shocked because I was hoping to play their upcoming release in 2025 on Oriental Vibes Season 2. During my internet search, NewJeans member, Hanni Pham, appears more than any member. Hanni Pham of NewJeans in an earlier interview calls for better treatment of artists in the industry. I further discovered that South Korea is working on the “Hanni Pham Bullying Case”. It looks like Hanni Pham was one of the victims in workplace bullying and she is advocating for better treatment of K-pop idols in the industry. As of November 28th, there is an article that mentions HYBE and ADOR losing about $423 million in value due to the departure of NewJeans. This contract termination deeply saddens me a lot as I have been listening to them for the last 2 years. Their songs “ETA”, “DITTO”, and “Supernatural” will forever be my top 3 favorites from them. NewJeans, we are always here for you!!! I will be playing the song “DITTO” on one of my finale dates (12/6).
2024 Music Bank Global Festival
In this section, I will be describing the announcement that I heard about for KBS2’s Music Bank. So apparently, the MCs of this year’s Song Festival are SUNGHOON of ENHYPEN and Jang Wonyoung of IVE. OH, MY GOODNESS! JANGKKU is back in MUSIC BANK!!! This year, Music Bank is going to have a global festival, and it will be in Japan. It will take place on the 14th and 15th of December and on Friday the 20th, it will also take place in Seoul. I will be watching the song festival once again this year. I have been watching the festival since 2021. I just can’t wait to see who will be performing the Christmas songs this year. I also can’t wait for SBS’ Christmas special as well on the 25th of December. SBS’ Christmas Special is called SBS Gayo Daejeon and it will take place in Incheon at the Inspire Arena.
Updates on Oriental Vibes
On my show, I will be doing a two-part finale special on December 6th and December 13th. On December 6that 9:00 am, I will be mashing together songs from the previous 14 episodes together and on December 13th, I will be mashing together all your favorite K-pop songs. I may bring some props for the studio on the 13thbecause I will also be celebrating that finals are over and that 2025 is coming very soon. If you are still reading up to this point, be on a lookout for my Spring 2025 announcement coming out on January 1st, 2025 at 12 AM. There will be a New DJ name and a revamped show name for January. Be on the lookout. This is DJ Fierce of Oriental Vibes, giving you the latest news on K-pop.