British singer and songwriter Ed Sheeran is slated to perform at this year’s Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA).
During the MAMA press conference held earlier today (November 16), chief producer Park Chan-wook announced that Sheeran will be the awards show’s global artist representative of the year. The executive noted that Sheeran will be preparing a “new version” of his chart-topping single, ‘Bad Habits’, to be performed exclusively for the awards show.
Park also cited Sheeran’s work with BTS as a factor in his selection as a foreign artist to be invited to MAMA. Notably, Sheeran has worked with BTS twice thus far: the singer was credited as the songwriter for their 2019 track ‘Make It Right’ and their third English-language track, ‘Permission to Dance’.
Kim Hyun-soo, CJ ENM’s head of entertainment, also noted that MAMA will be “expanding [its] presence to regions bordering Asia and beyond”, in a press release. “In a few years, we plan to host MAMA in the US, the world’s biggest music market.”
“This is an important year for MAMA to really solidify its presence as a global K-pop music awards ceremony. We plan to include global indicators and judging criterias to reflect K-pop’s global status, which will further heighten MAMA as one of the top tier global awards shows.”
The Mnet Asian Music Awards will be held on December 11at 6pm KST.
In other MAMA news, K-pop boyband Wanna One are officially set to reunite for the first time in nearly three years at 2021 MAMA. “They will be preparing a special performance that will thrill music fans,” MAMA representatives told SBS News, as translated by Soompi.
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