The 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) ceremony was more inclusive than ever before.
Wednesday's MAMA ceremony, held in Hong Kong and broadcast live throughout the globe, included more languages and international representatives than ever before in an attempt to make the Korean award show relevant to all of Asia.
With an English-speaking host ("Gangnam Style" singer Psy), award announcers switching off between Korean, English and Chinese, and awards given out to a variety of international stars, MAMA 2015 lived up to being an international awards ceremony.
This year's MAMA included Artist Favorite awards given to a variety of Asian stars, including J-pop group AKB48 and Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai, who performed at the event.
Awards were also given out to producers, engineers, and live entertainment directors from throughout Asia, opening up categories more so than previous years to include representatives of countries other than South Korea alone.
Aside from the awards themselves, award announcers, including "Running Man" Kim Jong Kook, and members of several K-pop groups went out of their way to address fans in languages other than Korean.
The growing trend of K-pop groups to include multilingual members was highlighted on Wednesday.
BIGBANG's Seungri addressed the audience in English and Japanese, while f(x)'s Amber spoke in English and Chinese when f(x) accepted the Female Global Fan Choice Award.
Additionally, the British pop group Pet Shop Boys performed a collaborative stage with f(x), and were also the recipients of the MAMA 2015 Worldwide Inspiration Award.
As interest in MAMA grows, the Mnet Asian Music Awards will likely continue to grow to be more representative of more Asian cultures and languages.
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Tamar Herman is a multi-media journalist and the co-founder of KultScene. She is a freelance writer and copy editor, and has written for MTV Iggy, Noisey, and Paste Magazine.
