NewJeans Just Became The First Girl Group To Win The MAMA Daesang in 12 Years

NewJeans have achieved a remarkable feat with this year’s MAMA Awards.

NewJeans | @newjeans_official/Instagram

The two-day event of the 2023 MAMA Awards came to a close on November 29. This year’s ceremony was held at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. The day-2 event is usually where the Daesang or the grand prizes are announced, which include four categories: Album Of The Year, Artist Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Worldwide Icon Of The Year.

This year, the groups that took the grand prizes home were SEVENTEEN (Album Of The Year), BTS (Worldwide Icon Of The Year), and NewJeans (Song Of The Year and Artist Of The Year). For each of these groups, it was a unique achievement. While for SEVENTEEN, it marked their first MAMA Daesang win, in the case of BTS, it was remarkable that they bagged such an honor while on a temporary hiatus.

Congratulations BTS for winning ‘Worldwide Icon Of The Year (Daesang)’ at the 2023 MAMA Awards.

— Kpop Charts (@kchartsmaster) November 28, 2023

SEVENTEEN at MAMA Awards

For NewJeans, a fourth-generation rookie group, winning two Daesangs in one night is a massive brag in itself. But apart from being such an astonishing personal achievement, it had a bigger significance.

It turns out NewJeans are the first girl group in 12 years to win the grand prize for the Artist Of The Year category! They are preceded by none other than Girls’ Generation, who won in the category in 2011.

Girls’ Generation won Artist Of The Year in 2011

In fact, in the award’s history, only three girl groups have won it so far. The Artist Of The Year award was first introduced in 2006, but it wasn’t until 2010 that it went to a girl group. That year, 2NE1 became the first K-Pop girl group to bag the prestigious award. The very next year, Girls’ Generation took it home, but since then, it has only been awarded to boy groups.

2NE1’s 2010 MAMA Artist Of The Year Win | The Asia Business Daily

NewJeans broke this streak just a little over a year into debuting. Seeing how they followed in the footsteps of K-Pop’s most iconic girl groups, the anticipation for their future just grew several times bigger among fans!

My favorite 2nd gen and 4th gen ggs congratulations to them https://t.co/p5YfTWX5eC pic.twitter.com/zGnZtTyADy

— Amu⁷ (@Gguklore) November 29, 2023

THIS IS THE NATION’S NEW GIRL GROUPpic.twitter.com/sIaUL0PnNj https://t.co/v0jY5X3Ifn

— kb is up like (@faggytron) November 29, 2023

“Is NewJeans going to continue their daesang sweep?”
pic.twitter.com/jT6f5J9oGn

— ❃ (@22KMJ) November 29, 2023