Chapter 132: When Love Dive Plays, It's Time to Receive Awards
On November 28th, after the award ceremonies in the Japanese and Korean sub-venues concluded, the final award ceremony was held at the AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong.
Previously, the nomination list for the 2018 MAMA Awards had already been announced on the official website, and all artists under DM Entertainment were nominated.
IVE was nominated for a total of ten awards: Best Artist of the Year, Best Song of the Year, Best Album of the Year, Female Rookie of the Year, Best Female Group, Best Dance Performance – Female Group, Most Popular Female Dance Artist, Asian New Artist, and the newly established TikTok Best MV and TikTok Most Popular Artist.
Compared to IVE, Lee Ji-eun was only nominated for the Solo Artist Rookie of the Year award.
Red Velvet, who debuted just one month prior, was also nominated for two awards: Female Rookie of the Year and TikTok Best MV.
Besides artists, many individuals from DM Entertainment were also nominated in professional categories.
Yin Huilin was nominated for Best Choreography, Li Xianzhu for Best Visual of the Year, and Jiang Shu was the only non-artist nominated for three awards at this MAMA ceremony: Best Executive Producer, Best Producer, and Best Composer.
The announcement of the MAMA nominations caused a huge stir both within and outside the industry.
Everyone knew IVE was strong, but the unprecedented nomination for ten major awards still made many people's eyelids twitch.
Hot!
Too hot!
So hot that it was a bit hard to accept.
In the traditional K-pop operating model, girl groups are consumables, and boy groups are the core. The operational logic of many small and medium-sized companies is to continuously launch new girl groups, then use commercial performances and gray transactions to exchange for money and resources to supply boy groups.
As long as one boy group can become popular, the company will not lack income subsequently, as boy groups have much stronger long-term money-making potential than girl groups.
If you want to make big money, then create boy groups.
But DM Entertainment broke this industry consensus. This company used one IVE to tell everyone that girl groups can also make big money.
Forget about girl groups, even boy groups haven't had a group nominated for a full ten awards.
DM Entertainment and CJ Entertainment, who host MAMA, have no personal connection. The reason IVE was nominated for so many awards is, firstly, they need to leverage IVE's immense popularity to prove their impartiality, and secondly...
"Praise to kill."
On the way from the hotel to the AsiaWorld-Expo, Jiang Shu looked at the netizens on his iPad discussing IVE's ten nominations, and said with narrowed eyes.
"The higher IVE is praised, the harder they will fall when they tumble from their pedestal," Yin Huilin said from the side.
"No, more importantly, the mastermind can use this opportunity to raise the vigilance of other companies against us, thereby accelerating the formation of an alliance," Jiang Shu shook his head and said.
He had originally thought that these companies wouldn't be able to hold back from targeting IVE until at least ITZY debuted, but the facts proved that he underestimated their tolerance.
It seems IVE's good day is coming to an end.
He just didn't know how many companies would unite, and what methods they would adopt to target IVE.
Jiang Shu shook his head slightly. Their DM Entertainment currently had too shallow a foundation, so they could only deal with problems as they arose.
The car arrived at the MAMA ceremony venue. Yin Huilin and Li Xianzhu got out one after another, followed by Jiang Shu and Lee Ji-eun, who had been silent in the car.
All the nominated executives from the company were present. DM Entertainment could be said to have given MAMA, or rather, CJ Entertainment, ample face.
Reporters and fans' cameras were aimed at Jiang Shu and Lee Ji-eun, who was holding his arm.
After walking the red carpet and signing their names on the poster, they entered the main hall.
The seats for the DM Entertainment executives were naturally in the front. Having them sit with the artists would not insult Jiang Shu and the other two, but rather the MAMA organizers themselves.
After walking the red carpet, Lee Ji-eun went to the other side. Her current status was not yet qualified for the front row, and Jiang Shu was not interested in bringing her over to "skip ranks."
After taking his seat, Jiang Shu took out his phone and started taking pictures everywhere. This was his first time at the AsiaWorld-Expo as a guest; previously, he had always come as an audience member to watch concerts.
Li Xianzhu sat in the middle, quietly chatting with Yin Huilin on her left. Neither of them chatted with their curious Chairman, and Jiang Shu was happy to have some peace.
After taking a round of photos, he finally put down his phone and looked at the seat beside him. Each seat had a name, assigned to the correct person, and the name next to Jiang Shu was...
Fang Shihe.
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.
"Chairman Jiang, I've heard much about you." Fang Shihe's smiling tiger-like face, accompanied by his voice, came into Jiang Shu's view.
"Director Fang." Jiang Shu smiled and nodded at Fang Shihe.
Fang Shihe did not go solo and was still working as a producer at JYP, serving as the head of JYP's production department. He was also an old acquaintance of their human resources director, Kim Young-joo.
"This time, IVE has truly made a name for themselves, with a full ten nominations, truly impressive," Fang Shihe said with a smile as he sat down.
"Just luck, just luck," Jiang Shu said with a chuckle.
"With an excellent producer like Chairman Jiang, IVE's success is certainly not luck," Fang Shihe shook his head. "Our chairman and I are very eager to exchange more musical ideas with Chairman Jiang."
I believe Park Jin-young, but not you.
"To receive recognition from two industry seniors, it seems my works are indeed not bad," Jiang Shu said with a smile.
"Chairman Jiang's works are more than just 'not bad.' In my opinion, there's no producer in the industry who can be Chairman Jiang's match."
Not enough to praise IVE to death, so now you're trying to praise me to death, huh?
Jiang Shu's mind was as clear as a mirror, and he didn't fall for it at all.
"Director Fang, that's not right. There are so many excellent producers in the industry; my achievements are nothing to speak of."
Amidst their insincere back-and-forth, the MAMA ceremony officially began.
At first, it was just some appetizers, some minor awards, but as time passed, the awards gradually became more significant.
Lee Ji-eun successfully defeated other nominees to win the Solo Artist Rookie of the Year award, a small sweet treat that kicked off DM Entertainment's awards at this MAMA.
"The winner of the Female Rookie of the Year award is... IVE!"
"The winner of the Best Dance Performance – Female Group award is... IVE!"
"The winner of the Most Popular Female Dance Artist award is... IVE!"
The music of "Love Dive" played every time IVE won an award. The ten major awards IVE was nominated for were being won one after another by the members, and acceptance speeches were given again and again.
With "Love Dive" playing repeatedly, the most prestigious awards – Best Female Group, Best Album of the Year, and Best Song of the Year – were all taken by IVE.
Out of the ten major awards, except for "I AM"'s TikTok Best MV being won by Red Velvet's "Bad Boy" and Best Artist of the Year being won by another boy group, the other eight major awards were all claimed by IVE.
The 2018 MAMA night was IVE's moment of glory. Eight major awards instantly propelled this rookie girl group, who had debuted less than a year ago, onto a pedestal. It seemed that the first legendary girl group in the era of girl group dominance was about to be born?