MAMA 2025: The Night K-Pop Rewrote the Rules
- lewishooper1
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
You won't believe who just took home The Daesang (the highest honors)...
The Night of Legends and Chart-Toppers
The 2025 MAMA Awards is recognized as one of K-pop's biggest events of the year, particularly, the Grand Prizes (Daesangs)! The show itself welcomes some of the biggest names in K-pop to perform at the awards as well!
This year the competition was tougher than ever; however, the Grand Prizes (Daesangs) were split among three industry powerhouses: G-Dragon , who claimed Artist of the Year, Stray Kids secured Album of the Year for KARMA, and the viral global hit "APT." by ROSÉ and Bruno Mars won Song of the Year.
These powerhouse names were not the only winners, though, as beyond the Daesangs, groups like aespa and SEVENTEEN dominated the performance categories, while ENHYPEN earned the ultimate fan recognition, the VISA Fans' Choice of the Year. The awards successfully celebrated both legendary artists and the current generation's chart-ruling acts, so let's check out some of the best performances and winners and nominees for each category with the Dojeon team!
Performances: An Evening of Spectacular Stages and Global Tributes
The two-day ceremony was filled with visually stunning and high-energy performances, showcasing the breadth of K-pop talent. The standout stages included a memorable collaboration tribute to the Netflix film KPop Demon Hunters, featuring members of BABYMONSTER, and explosive sets from major winners like Stray Kids and aespa. Veteran icon G-Dragon returned with a captivating solo performance, which for the Dojeon Media Team, this single handed performance was one of the main highlights of the show!
Artist and Group Awards
Best Artists: Veteran soloists took the top honors, with G-Dragon winning Best Male Artist and ROSÉ winning Best Female Artist.
Best Groups: SEVENTEEN was recognized as the Best Male Group, and aespa won the award for Best Female Group.
Best New Artists: The category had joint winners, celebrating the debuts of both CORTIS and the group Hearts2Hearts.
Performance and Technical Awards
Best Dance Performance: Choreography was highlighted across the board. SEVENTEEN and aespa won the Group categories, while G-Dragon and JENNIE won the Solo categories.
Best Vocal & Genre: The duo DAVICHI won Best Vocal Performance (Group), and ROSÉ secured the Solo Vocal award. DAY6 won for Best Band, and BIG Naughty for Best Rap & Hip Hop.
Specialty: The collaboration "APT." by ROSÉ and Bruno Mars won Best Collaboration. The film KPop Demon Hunters won Best OST, and JENNIE won Best Music Video for "ZEN".
Grand Prizes (Daesangs)
Artist of the Year: The highest artist recognition went to icon G-Dragon.
Song of the Year: The collaborative hit "APT." by ROSÉ and Bruno Mars was crowned Song of the Year.
Album of the Year: The prestigious Album of the Year award was won by Stray Kids for KARMA.
Fan and Special Awards
Top Fan Choice: ENHYPEN secured the ultimate fan-voted award, VISA Fans' Choice of the Year.
Global Popularity: IVE won multiple special honors, including Favorite Global Performer and Favorite Female Group, with their song “REBEL HEART” taking Global Trend Song.
Breakthroughs: BOYNEXTDOOR was named Favorite Male Group, and Izna won Favorite Rising Artist, while ALLDAY PROJECT was named Breakthrough Artist.
Final thoughts
This year's event was bigger than ever, thanks to K-pop's influence on the global stage. G-Dragon was a favorite to win artist of the year, thanks to his incredible music and work over the past year, and the Dojeon team is happy that he took home the award. In terms of performances, IVE also had a standout performance, although the best performance in our opinion is that of K-pop Demon Hunters, as their music is as big as Frozen's catchy melodies were at the time of their release.
Are you happy with the 2025 MAMA Award winners? Have your say in the comments below!
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