MAMA Awards Chief Producer Yoon Shin Hye Shares How K-Pop’s Biggest Award Show Came to Hollywood

As K-pop continues its meteoric rise on the global stage, the industry’s biggest award show sets a new milestone with its first-ever U.S. date for its 25th anniversary.

This week, on Nov. 21, 2024, the MAMA Awards will be held at Hollywood’s iconic Dolby Theater, marking the first time the event has crossed over to the States since its introduction in 1999. Widely regarded as one of the premiere K-pop events of the year, the MAMAs have spent the last 25 years growing from a music video awards ceremony in a Seoul theater to a multi-day, international affair across Asia. This year, the 2024 MAMA Awards will kick off with one night in Los Angeles before jumping to two days at the massive Kyocera Dome stadium in Osaka, Japan.

“Taking a first step is challenging, but at the same time, it’s meaningful,” MAMA’s chief producer Yoon Shin Hye shares with Billboard. “We strive to present various stages with an unmatched scale and provide unique experiences to global fans.”

This year’s theme, “Big Blur: What is Real?,” encapsulates MAMA’s commitment to pushing boundaries and exploring ways to reshape and rethink the music industry. Meanwhile, legendary K-pop producer and music executive J.Y. Park will link with Anderson. Paak for a meeting of the musical minds, as HYBE and Universal Music’s LA-based girl group KATSEYE will team up with another local troupe in the Los Angeles Rams Cheerleaders.

In this exclusive preview of this year’s show MAMA’s chief producer Yoon Shin Hye, delves into the vision and execution behind this year’s event. From overcoming the logistical challenges of hosting in two countries to crafting unique collabs that embody the MAMA spirit, the CJ ENM executive offers an inside look at the dedication and innovation driving the award show to evolve at its 25th anniversary.

Congratulations on what’s sure to be the biggest MAMA Awards. While I know having a ceremony in the U.S. was spoken about in the past, what happened to make it officially occur this year?

Yoon Shin Hye: Looking back on our 25-year MAMA heritage, MAMA has been held across Asia including Macao, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Japan and evolved to become the world’s No. 1 K-Pop awards, which started as the “Mnet Asian Music Awards.” Over the course of our 25-year journey, MAMA Awards has realized the value of “MUSIC MAKES ONE” with the growth of K-pop, and has established our own unmatched system and know-hows through facing and overcoming countless challenges. This has paved the way to host MAMA Awards in the U.S.

How long did it take to confirm MAMA in LA?

Every year as we hold KCON LA, I could feel the strong passion of fans in the U.S. and thought 2024 would be the right time to take a first step in the U.S. with the growth of K-pop. In the planning phase, we came up with the concept of “BIG BLUR,” as it’s about blurred boundaries between time and space, online and offline, imaginary and reality, language and culture, I thought it would be fun to run the MAMA Awards in relays from U.S. to Japan, and this perfectly fits to this year’s story.

How did the Los Angeles lineup come together?

As MAMA Awards is taking a significant first step in the U.S., we thought it would be meaningful to have rookies. So, we made a lineup for the first MAMA Awards in the U.S. with rookie artists. Plus, we have J.Y. Park, who marks the 30th anniversary of his debut, and RIIZE, who have special memories in the U.S. The group debuted in LA, and this year marks the first year of their debut and they are set to show something about their debut stories at MAMA Awards.

What went into the collaborations between J.Y. Park and Anderson .Paak, and KATSEYES with the LA Rams Cheerleaders? Take us through the process.

We wanted to show and present collaborations that have never been seen anywhere else only at MAMA Awards, and what only MAMA can make it happen. This year marks the 30th anniversary of J.Y. Park’s debut — he’s a renowned K-pop producer and K-pop artist — and Anderson .Paak is a Grammy Award winner. Anderson .Paak also has a strong interest in K-pop and recently directed a film about K-pop titled K-Pops! and, as it happens, the two artists are of the same Miryang Park clan [a Korean clan originating from the southeastern city of Miryang in South Korea].

On top of that, we have another special collaboration between the global girl group KATSEYE and the Los Angeles Rams Cheerleaders. We brought ideas about what we can only do in LA, what can be seen only at MAMA and to present performances with a diverse group of artists and become one through music at MAMA.

Actor Park Bo Gum will be the host for the U.S. date. How are you and he preparing?

Park Bo Gum has been with MAMA as a host since 2017 and he hosts the show with sincerity and delivers what MAMA wants to tell about its value and story. We’re confident that we can deliver our message and story well with our host, Park Bo Gum, at the MAMA Awards US.  Park is also looking forward to hosting.

What challenges have you faced or do you anticipate facing to successfully hold the MAMA Awards in LA for the first time?

MAMA tries a new thing every year. We strive to present various stages with an unmatched scale and provide unique experiences to global fans. This year, the MAMA Awards will take place in the U.S. and Japan in relays and be broadcast live around the world. This reflects our commitment to bringing people together around the world. This year’s concept especially means opening and creating a new world of MAMA that transcends dimensions of time and space. We decided to host MAMA Awards in two different regions, starting in LA on the 21st and then moving over to Osaka for two days. Taking a first step is challenging, but at the same time, it’s meaningful. Given the time difference and distance, it wasn’t easy to arrange a meeting to prepare and discuss, but the whole process was meaningful and fun to work toward the same goal with artists and staff to create a great show.

The Dolby Theater in Hollywood is a very different venue than the Kyocera Dome. How do you create a seamless experience between a theater and a stadium?

LA Dolby Theatre is a symbolic place to many and home of the Oscars, where the Academy Awards is held every year; it’s like the heart of Hollywood. For the past few years, MAMA Awards has been held at a dome-style venue, and Dolby Theatre has its own mood as a venue and different characteristics. We are going to show something different from our previous MAMA stages and artists will take the stage in a different way at the distinctive venue.

With Los Angeles opening the MAMA Awards this year, can you share the ways you’ll establish the “Big Blur: What is Real?” theme? It’s very interesting but somewhat abstract.

MAMA has always wondered what kind of a new thing will be created when new technology meets art, and has visualized and created stages with that idea. MAMA’s concepts have been comprehensive ones, reflecting trends and environmental changes like the world shifting from analog to digital age, and globally being connected online in this digital era. At this year’s MAMA, we wanted to talk about chaos caused by rapid technological change in our time, which is happening faster than ever and how technological advancement and convergence across industries are affecting the music industry. We also reflected our willingness to create MAMA’s own “NEW THING” that crosses boundaries between imaginary and reality, time and space and online and offline. And we wanted to ask a question of “What is Real?” and make people think about what kind of music they really like.

Historically, MAMA has been a place for new TV projects or teasers to be announced, like Produce 48 or Boys Planet. Are there any surprises for audiences this time?

As we have been taking an uncharted path, MAMA will be full of ever-evolving performances. We are working hard to meet high expectations. MAMA is one “big live show,” and will have many surprising moments. Although watching performances in clips is becoming more common these days, I’m sure it will be much more fun to watch it live.