British singer and songwriter Ed Sheeran is slated to perform at this year’s Mnet Asian Music Awards (MAMA), where he will be performing a “new version” of “Bad Habits”.
NME reports that 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 artiste 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 11 at 6 pm 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.
