Mnet's MAMA 2023 Awards is one of the biggest and most-anticipated music award ceremonies of the year. K-pop groups, South Korean soloists, and more Asian-based artists are honored and recognized for their outstanding and impressive achievements in the past year.

MAMA 2023, which will take place at the Tokyo Dome in Japan on November 28 and 29, is anticipated to draw musicians of all levels of experience due to the event's broad list of nomination categories. While many details about the awards ceremony, such as the nominees, attendees, artist lineup, etc., are yet unknown, the news that voting will start on October 19 has already gotten many fans thrilled and pumped up.

Here's everything we know so far about MAMA 2023: Voting procedure, categories, winning criteria, and more

On Saturday, September 23, MAMA 2023 announced that its voting period will kickstart on October 19, at 6 PM KST, and nominees are likely expected to be released sometime before the commencement of voting. MAMA Awards, which saw its start in 1999, has mostly been stable with its categories, at least in recent years.

MAMA 2023 Voting Categories

Here are the categories under which several South Korean artists will be placed with respect to their accomplished achievements this year.

• Best New Female Artist
• Best New Male Artist
• Best Female Artist
• Best Male Artist
• Best Female Group
• Best Male Group
• Best Vocal Performance Solo
• Best Vocal Performance Group
• Best Band Performance
• Best Dance Performance Solo
• Best Dance Performance Male Group
• Best Dance Performance Female Group
• Best OST
• Best Collaboration
• Best Hip Hop & Urban Music
• Song of the Year
• Artist of the Year
• Worldwide Fan Choice Top 10

How to vote through the Mnet MAMA Awards' website?

The voting for the above categories will take place online and as announced, will kickstart on October 19, 2023, at 6 PM KST. Fans will essentially be able to only contribute to MAMA 2023's Awards through the Worldwide Fans' Choice Top 10. The voting can be done through Spotify, X, or Mnet Plus app. For X, fans will be required to follow a certain format released by MAMA where particular use of hashtags such as

MAMAVOTE and the artist's given hashtag will be counted as a vote.

For a vote to count on Spotify, a fan must enter the voting playlist that will be developed by MAMA, choose a song by an artist, and listen to it for 30 seconds. While these come as externals, the majority of the attention for votes is concentrated on the Mnet Plus app. It requires the fans to first sign up for the app, then they can enter into the MAMA 2023 Awards panel and select Worldwide Fans' Choice Top 10 under the VOTE section.

After selecting the artists the fan wants to vote for, they need to go through a series of verification steps like entering CAPTCHA, etc. Once the verification is done, fans are mandatorily required to watch an ad to complete and confirm their voting.

MAMA 2023 voting criteria as per the previous years' functioning

While MAMA 2023 hasn't revealed the criteria with which it'll be working this year, here's the division it followed last year to understand how fans can contribute to other categories apart from Worldwide Fans' Choice Top 10.

Artist of the Year and Artist Category Awards:

• 40% judge panel evaluation
• 30% song downloads/streaming [20% Korea + 10% global]
• 30% physical album sales

Song of the Year and Genre Category Awards:

• 40% judge panel evaluation
• 60% song downloads/streaming [40% Korea + 20% global]

Album of the Year:

• 40% judge panel evaluation
• 60% physical album sales

Worldwide Icon of the Year:

• 50% Mnet Plus votes
• 30% Spotify votes
• 10% Twitter votes
• 10% Music video score
• 10% Extra live broadcast Twitter votes

Worldwide Fans' Choice Top 10:

• 50% Mnet Plus votes
• 30% Spotify votes
• 10% Twitter votes
• 10% music video score

With the voting period for MAMA 2023 coming closer, fans hope to see more stable news about the nominees and other voting information to best support their favorite artists.

There are 50 nominees in the Pre Vote. The 20 teams selected from Pre Vote become the nominees for the final round of votes.

Judging criteria

• Mnet Plus votes: 70%
• Spotify votes: 30%

⏳ Pre Voting Begins: October 19, 2023 @ 6pm KST [10.18 @ 11pm HT / 10.19 @ 2am PT / 3am MT / 4am CT / 5am ET]

⏳ Pre Voting Ends: October 30, 2023 @ 11:59pm KST [4:59am HT / 7:59am PT / 8:59am MT / 9:59am CT / 10:59am ET]

👉 There are two ways to participate in the Pre Vote and Vote:

Vote on the Mnet Plus app

1. Download the Mnet Plus app.

- Android: //play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=world.mnetplus&pli=1 - iOS: //apps.apple.com/us/app/mnet-plus/id6443405421

2. Log in or sign up for an account. You will need to provide an email address.

3. Click the MAMA Pre Vote banner.

4. Vote for BTS by clicking on their picture. [You can vote for up to 3 nominees and may not vote for one artist multiple times.]