MMA 2021: What is Legend Stage? BTS, IU, Girls Generation among nominated performers
As the year 2021 comes to an end, multiple events awarding K-pop talent are on the horizon too. The year has seen many record-breaking moments, not only for big groups like BTS and Blackpink. It has been a breakout year for rookie K-pop bands too like aespa and Enhypen, who made their debut merely a year ago. Melon Music Awards is one of the most well-known, year-end K-pop music festivals organized by Kakao M’s online music store, Melon.
At the Melon Music Awards, artists are awarded based on their sales, charts, and popularity records based on Melon statistics. The Melon Music Awards (MMA) started as an online festival in 2005 and continued with that format till 2008. The first offline ceremony was held in 2009 and has, ever since, become a much-loved event that has seen many legendary artists take the stage over the years. This time around, MMA has announced something grand to felicitate the "legends" from their history.
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What is 'Legend Stage'?
On November 3, Melon announced its list of nominees for a new special award that celebrates the many legendary performances of the ceremony. The ‘Legend Stage’ award is a new title that will be awarded to the one artist that has been voted by fans for having the most legendary stage performance in the history of Melon Music Awards. This award urges fans to vote for the music act that they wish they could see again, whose performance was the best among the many great performances.
To tease the nominees for the category of awards, MMA dropped a teaser video for the same on November 3, the date when the voting was opened to fans. In the teaser, MMA 2021 announced the ‘Next Music Universe’ which serves as a tagline for the year-end festival. Melon said that MMA has become a synonym for K-pop and that is why they would like to celebrate the best of K-pop showcased in the music event over the years.
Fans can vote for the winner of the Melon Music Awards ‘Legend Stage’ title from November 3 to November 11 on MMA’s official website using their Kakao Talk IDs or their Melon IDs.
Nominees for Legend Stage at MMA 2021
The list of acts nominated for the Legend Stage category at the 2021 Melon Music Awards are as follows.
1. Girls Generation
The girl group’s 2009 performance for the song ‘Tell Me Your Wish’ is the first nominee for the award. Melon captioned the post saying, “Skinny jeans that shook the fashion industry! Girls Generation, the standard of sword group dance.”
2. 2PM
The second generation boy group, 2PM’s performance on their song, ‘Heartbeat’ is the next nominee from Melon Music Awards 2009 event. Talking about the stage Melon said, “Unprecedented Beast Idol 2009 Who is the Heartbeat Ending Fairy?”
3. 2NE1
The legendary group who is rumored to make a comeback on Mnet's Asia Music Awards 2021 has been nominated for their Melon Music Awards 2010 stage for their performances of the songs ‘Can’t Nobody’ and ‘Go Away’. Melon said, “Even if you listen to it now, it’s a sophisticated song. This is the stage that won the group an album award.”
4. beast (Highlight)
The group beast (now known as Highlight) is nominated for their 2013 performance of the song, ‘Shadow’ while Melon said, “A stage where tears are shed twice for a performance, once for a neat live,” about the group’s emotional performance.
5. Apink
Melon’s caption about Apink’s performance said, “From marching band to cheerleaders, Mr. Chu is full of excitement.” Apink is nominated for their 2014 performance of ‘Mr. Chu.’
6. WINNER
The boy group, WINNER was nominated for their 2014 performance of the song, ‘It’s Empty’ as Melon said, “Super Rookie Winner who performed a solo performance in the year of their debut,” about the group’s solid debut performance.
7. BIGBANG
The boyband rose to fame for their viral song, ‘Fantastic Baby’. Melon nominated BIGBANG for their 2015 performance of the song as they said, “Is this Big Bang Dance concert?” about the hit performance.
8. Blackpink
Melon said, “The stage was on fire and my heart was on fire, Blackpink's ‘Ibdeok’ stage,” about the group, Blackpink’s 2016 performances for the songs, ‘Whistle’ and ‘Playing with Fire’. The word ‘ibdeok’ means something that makes people want to join the fandom asserting the fact that this was the group’s breakthrough performance.
9. EXO
EXO is nominated for their performance of ‘Monster’ for their 2016 monster stage which was shining bright all thanks to EXO-Ls and their lightsticks. Melon acknowledges this saying, “The day the Eridibong (lightstick) firepower Max was taken! EXO ripped the stage live.”
10. Twice
The song ‘Cheer Up’ and ‘TT’ that has defined the girl group Twice over the last few years has been MMA’s nominee for the 2021 Legend Stage. Their 2016 performance on the two songs became a sensation while Melon talks about it saying, “2016 Year of Cheer-Up, Tweets who made even zombies harmless.”
11. IU
IU’s 2017 performance on the song, ‘To The Name’ has been nominated for the Legend Stage. Melon said, “Your name is all special, to the touching name,” as they spoke about the soloist’s performance.
12. Red Velvet
The girl group’s 2017 performance on the songs ‘Peekaboo’ and ‘Red Flavor’ have been nominated for the stage. Talking about Red Velvet performance Melon said, “Red Concept Red Flavor, Velvet Costume, Winter MMA.”
13. Wanna One
The group Wanna One was nominated for their performance on not one but three of their songs, ‘Nothing Without You’, ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Lively’ while Melon said, “Legendary Camera Walking X Wanna One Chemie,” while they talked about the group's stellar performance.
14. BTS
The legendary group was nominated for their 2018 performance of the song, ‘Idol’ as Melon said, “This is K-Performance! IDOL with Korean style,” about the stage.
15. Chungha
The soloist is nominated for their 2019 performance on the songs, ‘Already 12:00’ and ‘Snapping’ while Melon said, “The appearance of Queen Chungha, a performance that crosses good and evil,” about her duality performance.
16. Lim Young-woong
The trot singer’s online performance at the 2020 MMA on the songs, ‘Trust Me Now’ and ‘Hero’ was nominated for the legendary stage. Melon complimented the performance saying, “Young-woong Lim, who went from playing the piano to live, taking pictures.”
Fans can vote for their favorite performance here.