Here’s Everything We Know About The 2022 MAMA Awards — Lineup, Special Stages, And More

Are you excited for MAMA?

Here’s everything we know about the 2022 MAMA Awards, being held on November 29 and 30.

The 2022 MAMA Awards are being held on November 29 and 30 at the Kyocera Dome Osaka in Japan. The dome has a capacity of up to 55,000 spectators.

The MCs for the event have been confirmed to be Jeon Somi and actor Park Bo Gum. Jeon Somi will host on November 29 and Park Bo Gum will host on November 30.

Currently, there are 23 artists confirmed to be performing at the 2022 MAMA Awards. They are as follows:

Day 1 — November 29: Stray Kids, TXT, JO1, Kep1er, HYOLYN, BIBI, Forestella, NMIXX, LE SSERAFIM, Street Man Fighter, KARA, DKZ

Day 2 — November 30: TREASURE, ENHYPEN, IVE, ITZY, Zico, Lim Young Woong, (G)I-DLE, NiziU, INI, NewJeans

If you’re counting, that’s only 22 artists. That’s because Mnet just announced that BTS’s J-Hope is the 23rd artist! The day he will be performing has not yet been announced though. MAMA is preparing a solo stage for J-Hope that will be written into history.

There have already been several special stages that have been announced by Mnet. One special stage will take five of the most popular rookie groups — IVE, Kep1er, NMIXX, NewJeans, and LE SSERAFIM — into one super-charged special performance. With a total of 32 girl group members on one stage, it will be a collaboration that can never be seen at any other awards show.

The second special performance announced was (G)I-DLE having a collaboration with Korean rock band Jaurim.

The third collaboration announced was Stray Kids’ 3RACHA (Bang Chan, Changbin, Han), Tiger JK, and Jung Jae Il. Jung Jae Il is known for his musical production skills, composing the music for Parasite, Okja, and Squid Game. The combination of a hip-hop legend in Tiger JK, three of K-Pop’s strongest rappers in 3RACHA, and Jung Jae Il’s composition skills is a unique trio that could only be seen at 2022 MAMA.

Generally, MAMA showcases a foreign artist or two during the awards, with Ed Sheeran appearing in 2021 and Dua Lipa in 2019. However, as this is the first show since their rebranding, they decided to focus only on K-Pop with this edition.

As the show has changed from the Mnet Asian Music Awards to just MAMA, they have also changed the design of the trophy itself. The trophy will maintain its cube shape that has been present for the past 21 years but instead, the designs on the sides of the cube have been changed to reflect the values that MAMA believes artists should display.

Finally, MAMA has historically been known as being an “attendance award show”, where artists who are present are nearly guaranteed to be winning at least one award during the show. However, the organizing committee for MAMA has stated that they will proceed with the judging of the awards without taking into consideration whether or not the artist is attending. They are attempting to become more transparent with how they hand out the awards and trying to increase the legitimacy.