The 2016 Mnet Asian Music Awards ceremony, organized by CJ E&M through its music channel Mnet, took place at the AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong. The ceremony was the seventh consecutive Mnet Asian Music Awards to be hosted outside of South Korea and the 18th ceremony in the show's history.
Nominees were announced on October 28, 2016, through the 2016 MAMA Nomination Special Live Broadcast aired on Mnet streamed nationally and globally. Leading the awards was Exo with 3.
MAMA 2016 was the eighteenth edition of the Mnet Asian Music Awards. It was simultaneously broadcast live in South Korea, Japan, the United States and Southeast Asia. In Sri Lanka and Thailand, it was made available to stream on Iflix 24 hours after its broadcast in South Korea. This marked the fifth consecutive time the event would take place in the same country and the fourth consecutive time to be held in the same venue.
However, MAMA 2016 has the lowest TV ratings since 2009 edition.
The following individuals and groups, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers.
Eligible nominees included songs and/or albums released from October 31, 2015, until October 27 the next year. Winners would be selected based on six categories including online voting and evaluation from MAMA professional panel.
Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.
Following the announcement of the nominees on October 28, online voting opened on the official MAMA website via PC and mobile web. The voting ended on December 1, 2016.
The following artist(s) received two or more nominations (excluding the special awards):