Netizens realize almost no 90s-born idols perform at 'MAMA' anymore + Super Junior's Eunhyuk reacts
AKP STAFF
Posted by Janie-Reign 3 hours ago 7,784
Netizens are buzzing over the realization that there aren’t any idol group members born in the 90s performing on the first day of '2025 MAMA.'
On an online forum, fans discussed how most artists performing on the first day of the '2025 Mnet Asian Music Awards' — including group members — was born after 1999. The lineup marks a new era in K-pop, with the spotlight now fully shifting to idols born in the 2000s and even the 2010s.
For many long-time K-pop fans, it "feels like only yesterday" that the first idols born in 2000 began taking over the big stages. Names like ASTRO's Sanha, NCT's Haechan, Renjun, Jeno, and Jaemin, SF9's Chani, and CLC's Eunbin were remembered as the first wave of 00-line idols.
Now, the K-pop idol groups dominating major award show stages are all born between 2000 and 2010. Except for the performances of BUMSUP and Super Junior, the first half of 'MAMA,' titled Chapter 1, features an entirely new generation of performers.
While fans expressed amazement at how fast the K-pop landscape continues to evolve — with younger contestants debuting every year — Super Junior's Eunhyuk joined in the discussion with humor, responding to the situation in a playful exchange with fans on a communication app.
He wrote:
"This is so funny lol. They say there are virtually no 90-line idols in the lineup for MAMA. They’re trying to smack us in the face, right? Lol. I guess they’re all 00-liners now. We (Super Junior and E.L.Fs) are from the 80s line. Are we even allowed to be there? What’s even funnier is that we’re older than MAMA itself. It used to be called mkmf — that’s where we started. We should be the ones calling the award show BABIES instead of MAMA, and the real babies can call it MAMA.
Maybe it’s best for us to treat this MAMA as our last one, right? Since it’s our 20th debut anniversary. Even though it was hard to schedule, we decided to attend this year for you E.L.Fs. But wouldn’t it be better for us to start giving our hoobaes more chances from now on? :D Anyway, please look forward to this year’s MAMA without any 90s kids lol."
While Super Junior is performing on the first day, with members born between 1983 and 1988, the second day of '2025 MAMA' will feature several idols born in the 90s, including ZEROBASEONE (with member Kim Ji Woong born in 1998) and Stray Kids (with members born between 1997 and 2001).
After reading Eunhyuk’s comment, netizens couldn’t stop laughing, joking about how younger fans today might not even know what mkmf is — the original name of the Mnet awards before it was rebranded as MAMA.
One commenter humorously agreed that Eunhyuk was right to say fans should "look forward to the show without any 90s kids," pointing out that Super Junior are "definitely not 90s kids" but "true 80s kids."
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