Kakao to hold Melon Music Awards at Incheon's Mohegan Inspire

Kakao Entertainment will hold its annual Melon Music Awards (MMA) at Incheon's Mohegan Inspire Entertainment Resort, the content company said Monday.

Chen Si, president and representative director of Mohegan Inspire Entertainment Resort, left and Joseph Chang, co-CEO of Kakao Entertainment. [KAKAO ENTERTAINMENT]

Kakao Entertainment will hold its annual Melon Music Awards (MMA) at Incheon's Mohegan Inspire Entertainment Resort, the content company said Monday.

The Kakao subsidiary signed an agreement with the entertainment resort to cooperate in hosting a variety of live events, Kakao Entertainment said in a press release.

MMA is the annual music award ceremony hosted by Korea's largest music streaming service, Melon, since 2009. The streaming service was launched in 2004 and has been managed by Kakao Entertainment since 2021.

Kakao Entertainment and Mohegan Inspire Entertainment Resort previously collaborated for the MMA in 2023 as the first live event for the resort, which opened in November last year. The event hosted 13 K-pop acts that performed in the middle of the arena for an audience of approximately 12,000 people.

More information on this year’s MMA will be available at a later date.

"We will effectively utilize the capabilities and intellectual property held by both companies to ensure that the achievements and glory of the domestic music industry and artists are more widely recognized around the world,” said Joseph Chang, co-CEO of Kakao Entertainment.

"We will strive to promote outstanding K-pop performance content through our collaboration with Kakao Entertainment and make this an opportunity to set a new milestone in the global live entertainment industry," said Chen Si, president and representative director of Mohegan Inspire Entertainment Resort.

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]