So, I sat down and watched all three days of the MAMA Awards this year. Well… almost all three days (there was definitely some fast-forwarding). After a few years being pretty resigned to the ceremony, I was curious this year because so much of my favorite 2024 music came from artists who were big enough to perform at events like this.
With that said, I feel like MAMA performances begin to get a bit monotonous after a few hours. So many acts opt for the same approaches when it comes to special effects, dance breaks and remixes. Given this overlapping style, most of my favorite performances tended to come from artists and songs I loved this year. Consider this list extra-biased on the unofficial Bias List scale.
6. IVE
While neither Accendio nor HEYA are personal favorite IVE songs, both had well-conceived remixes that upped the energy for a dome setting.
5. YEONJUN
He gets bonus points for being the first performer of the night to utilize the cool VR/AR technology in the Kyocera Dome. I don’t know what the stage looked like in person (was the roof projection even visible?), but it looked very cool from the TV screen. The song is whatever, but I loved the staging.
4. KATSEYE
Katseye impressed me, and this cheer-inspired performance made me realize that Debut is an even better song than I’d thought. I’m still not sold on Touch at all, but the first half of their stage was really fun.
3. ROSÉ x BRUNO MARS
I know on-site fans were upset that this was pre-recorded, but the intimate setting worked extremely well for this song. APT. really comes alive with an audience and that energy crackled off the screen. Rosé and Bruno have a ton of chemistry and charisma.
2. G-DRAGON x BIGBANG
I love when MAMA features a big reunion or long-awaited comeback. I hated GD’s unflattering pink outfit, but everything else was fantastic (baby). I know some have been a bit lukewarm on Home Sweet Home but I think it’s a banger and this performance drove that home. The staging (a double reveal for Taeyang and Daesung) was brilliant. Then, the guys went on to unleash two K-pop epics in Bang Bang Bang and Fantastic Baby. It was thrilling to see them back together and makes me optimistic for the future.
1. BOYNEXTDOOR / RIIZE / TWS
These three acts were overwhelmingly responsible for filling my 2024 playlist. If it wasn’t for them, I’d probably have a very dire opinion of the year in K-pop. I considered ranking them, but I liked all three performances for the same reason so I’m calling it a joint first place.
Compared to BOYNEXTDOOR’s dome performance, RIIZE and TWS performed at the (much) smaller Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. I may be in the minority, but I actually preferred these smaller stages. They felt more intimate and — lacking the added bombast of the dome setting — artists had to rely more on good old fashioned showmanship. BOYNEXTDOOR land this high on my ranking because they found a way to bring that feeling to a big setting. Their stage had much more personality than many of the bombastic stages on nights two and three.
If I had to pick, TWS probably had my favorite performance. I love the songs and fresh energy. I’m also a sucker for desk-related choreography and marching bands. The storyline was cute and I love that we were able to hear an extended version of Plot Twist (finally!).
Speaking of extended mixes, I need SM Entertainment to release the stage version of RIIZE’s Boom Boom Bass immediately. The dance break was unbelievably funky and I adore the Michael Jackson influences. They need to lean hard into these grooves next year. It’s a pity portions of their fan base were so obnoxious during the show.
The Bias List // K-Pop Reviews & Discussion 
I liked the added synths, crunches, and lasers in the Supernova and Whiplash MAMA version. I do admit I’m very biased towards those songs.
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Yeah I have no idea how that didnt make it in this list… The songs sound 10x better live ESPECIALLY the additions to Whiplash’s production.
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Heavily agree, especially for Whiplash, the extra added textures really made it pop.
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It’s funny, I actually watched their performance a couple of times wanting to find a spot for it on my list.
As much as I love some of their songs, here’s the thing about aespa performances for me: they’re always polished but I find myself wanting more personality. It’s hard to become enthralled with them for this reason.
(I also don’t really care for Whiplash. The structure’s too static for me)
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You gave Whiplash a pretty high score (8.5) is the live performance that you disliked?
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No, the song’s just fallen off for me.
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I see, so it hasn’t aged well for you 😀 I’m curious to see if it shows up on the “Fallers” list soon. I was surprised you gave that song that high of a score, it didn’t seem your cup of tea. On that album you should check out Flowers. I liked that better than Whiplash.
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Also I personally couldn’t deal with all the AI this year, especially IVE (a group I treasure dearly)
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the ai was actually mama’s doing, not starship/ive
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I personally loved Treasure’s stage. They play to the crowd so well, it reminds me how YG songs are sometimes made for the concert setting. They sang live a lot and didn’t rely on rigid dance preformances. I love how they interact with the crowd. I felt like the last song in their set, Run, worked so well in the stadium setting, the energy was pulsating
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How do you guys think about BigBang preforming songs without TOP? I kind of miss his presence in the songs
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Woow I’m surprised Yeonjun’s stage is mentioned on this list 😅
MAMA 2024 was really boring…
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what is your opinion about the Collab stage performance of TXT x Enhypen * ZB1 ?
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I think I liked it better in theory than execution. It was still fun and impressive, though.
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Maybe I’m a Teume, so I’ll be a bit biased, but man, Treasure’s stage was AMAZING. They knew how to hype up the crowd and it almost felt like a Treasure concert with other groups as guest performances. Even aespa’s stage was really cool.
”It’s a pity portions of their fan base were so obnoxious during the show.” Hopefully you don’t mean the OT7 fans, cause man, that day was a shitshow with the way SM/MAMA banned anything 7 or orange (and it was nowhere on the list of what not to bring), and OT6 literally called the cops on OT7s (fortunately the cops did nothing) 😬🥴 I already gave SM a D+ this year, don’t make me lower it to a D or a D-.
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From everything I’ve heard, OT7 fans have behaved abominably, I mean… there was a gun threat?
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The gun threat thing was blown out of proportion. They basically took the phrase “defending x isn’t enough, I need a gun” literally
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you might be right, I don’t remember the details. Nonetheless I find the act of picketing at kcon to be very embarrassing for all involved
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the only thing that wouldve made the tws stage better is if they incorporated jihoons tutting skills somehow and/or gave a special spotlight to kyungmin like holy shit that kid is a STARRRR
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the Accendio remix was actually so bad, I thought it was low energy compared to the original. they could’ve just made the original more magical-sounding…
ZB1 had my favorite performance of the year.
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I have to agree. They instrumentation they used did not click for me at all. I did like how they sang their stages live
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yes to that. one of the very few groups to sing live.
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hey so this is insane
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I was crazy amazed by young posse’s performance at day 1 US MAMA. Definitely would put GD at the top of my list but young posse was a close second with just how much energy I felt from their performance, and then everything else was 3rd, maybe the Rose/Bruno Mars performance edging out the rest, but it was a pretty underwhelming year
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i might be biased but i feel like ZB1 stage is so underrated. They had amazing story line and the dance break had my jaw dropped plus ending the performance with good so bad def made it my favorite stage this year. It was so fun to watch
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I’m literally laughing. How in the hell Seventeen isn’t included?? Like are you blind???
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And here I thought that Carats should be the nice fandom
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She’s a little rude but she’s not wrong..unless someone deliberately avoids seventeen’s performance than maybe this list would be right…and ykw, we stopped being nice after we saw that being nice only makes our artists gets hate and bcz we are called nice and peaceful we can’t even say anything to haters .so yeah..but we still be honey nice to nice ppl only
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I’m sorry but this blog here is no place for anyone, Carats including, to try to get some “justice” from. This is a personal blog, with the word ‘bias’ in it’s name and this very article is started by saying the list is heavily biased regarding the writer’s preferences for performances and the song’s he found dear to him. No one here voted for anything, it’s a personal ranking and it doesn’t include anyone else’s opinion other than the writer’s. If any of us has a different opinion, including you, you’re welcome to write it down in the comments respectfully and without asking anyone if they’re blind. As you can see by almost every other commenter’s example.
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She’s a little rude but she’s not wrong..unless someone deliberately avoids seventeen’s performance than maybe this list would be right…and ykw, we stopped being nice after we saw that being nice only makes our artists gets hate and bcz we are called nice and peaceful we can’t even say anything to haters .so yeah..we still be nice to nice ppl
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This is so horribly ranked 😭
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Then make your own
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Similar ranking for the top groups tbh, but I’d just say Boynextdoor and Bigbang, for the rest I don’t have much lol. I loved the Boynextdoor one the most because they:
1.chose the outfits that weren’t boring
2. oozed with charisma and completely owned the stage
3. made Nice Guy into a better song than it was
4. sang live and sounded amazing
I’m constantly the one here praising them and I so don’t wanna jinx them lmao, but I have to say, if they continue to do what already are, and keep the music quality from their first EPs, they are going to be so HUGE. They already are big. I loved the Bigbang one because I like Home Sweet Home😆. For TWS I tbh wished a bigger stage, I know it’s just a preference, and for Riize last year they did better.
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Your reasons are exactly why BND’s performance really resonated with me, too! Their songs have such personality and they’re really good at knowing how to deliver that on stage. That kind of a lively, engaging performance is such a delight to see, especially these days.
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Yess🙌🙌🙌
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Like the past two years Treasure’s was my favorite MAMA performance. It feels like rather than trying to impress the audience, they’re bringing the audience into the performance with them. Their energy is just so infectious. Plus, they’ve probably performed those songs a million times by now but still appear to be having fun.
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Apparently TWS’ performance was also inspired by Seventeen’s MAMA 2015 Mansae performance – I totally saw the vision, and it makes me reminisce of how excellent and legendary early Seventeen was! It’s so nice to see their juniors bring that energy and also make it into their own with their lovely songs.
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For me its
Bigbang at the top for obvious reasons.
Yeonjun because he worked insanely hard.
Then IVE because they actually sang live for some parts of it.
The rest were plain garbage and I’m amazed MAMA even charges money for this. Like Bibi couldn’t even swing half a live note while standing still?
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I wanted to check out Yeonjun’s performance, saw the text that said a bunch of the stuff in the video was AI-generated and pressed the little X. Honestly the easiest way to make me lose interest in something. I guess I’m not going to bother watching anything from this year’s awards if that’s what they’re going to be like.
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for me meovv should be there
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I’ll make a list as a Seventeen fan
1.BigBang ,GD ofc
2. Seventeen (even if I wasn’t biased, it would still be on number 2 considering the choreo, concept and concept presentation and sound mixing too)
3. Katseye ( Ate)
4. Treasure
5. Enhypen
6. Aespa
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without BB and Katseye ,this list could be called the worst one.
I guess those attracted you somehow . good for them
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I looovvedd Boynextdoor’s performance so much, they have such charisma. And the live singing even though not perfect made me appreciate them even more. They have such personality which I think is their major attraction point at the moment.
Also, yeah, Big Bang, I was screaming at the top of my lungs from my room😂. They are simply great.
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I personally really liked ILLIT’s stage…. I especially loved the dance parts and how they all had their moments to shine… love them or not, ILLIT are definitely a group to pay attention to…. also they sung so well…. ILLIT are one upping themselves time and time again…
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