If you've been on Twitter today, you may have seen a strange worldwide hashtag trending. "재검토요청_마마" became one of the biggest topics to hit social media after the Mnet Asian Music Awards held its second event in Japan. And, as you may have guessed, the show's results are causing all kinds of controversies.
For the past few weeks, fans from around the world have been voting for their favorite k-pop acts after Mnet released its nominations for MAMA 2017. Groups like EXO, BTS, Winner, Seventeen, Twice, and more were up to grab major awards, but fans quickly realized their online votes were not coming out as planned.
The k-pop fandom categorically accused Mnet of manipulating its online voting system, and the event's latest winners has fans of multiple groups asking MAMA to reconsider its awards.
As you can see below, fans are demanding answers for several major category wins from MAMA Japan. PRISTIN's win of Best New Female Artist is being contested by Kim Chung Ha fans as the latter was leading the category in votes with 26.6 million supporters. PRISTIN was in second place with just under 20 million votes. Seventeen has also come under question for winning Best Male Group Dance Performance as the group only accrued 2.2 million votes; Bands like EXO and BTS had well over 30 million votes each for the same category.
However, it appears that Song of the Year has gained the most heat online. Twice ultimately took home the award despite only receiving 1% of online votes for the category online. EXO led the charge with "Ko Ko Bop" while BTS, Winner, and Girls' Generation followed suit. The insult was only compounded when major stars like D-Dragon and IU were snubbed by the event despite both artists releasing hugely successful albums this year.
So far, Mnet has yet to comment about the trending hashtag, but fans are doing their best to figure out how the event's math broke down. According to MAMA's website, online votes accounted for up to 30% of any category. Winners were then determined by overall digital sales, album sales, and the event's own expert panel.
What are your thoughts on this MAMA 2017 debacle? Hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to let me know and talk all things k-pop and anime!