Benner here! If you listen to our podcast, you may be familiar with my disgusting ‘loyal to the oil’ phrase appearing in Full House Ep 8. I would like to publicly apologize for any second-hand humiliation that was caused…I too felt a deep disgust as it spewed out my mouth. v_v Anywho today I’ll be sharing my not so secret obsession with k-pop girl group Mamamoo!! Before I became a hardcore Moomoo (Mamamoo’s official fandom name), I lived and breathed SNSD. While I’m still a Sone and continue to love and support SNSD in their individual activities (coincidently listening to Tiffany’s ‘Teach You’ as I write), Mamamoo came out of nowhere and won me over.
Mamamoo is a 4 member k-pop girl group under entertainment company RBW who is home to brother groups Vromance and ONEUS. The group consists of leader & main vocalist Solar (Kim Yong-Sun),
main rapper & dancer Moonbyul (Moon Byul-Yi),
lead vocalist & dancer Wheein (Jung Whee-In),
and last but not least lead vocalist, rapper, & maknae Hwasa (Ahn Hye-Jin).
Their Debut
The group made their official debut June 18th, 2014 with their single ‘Mr. Ambiguous’ from their 1st EP Hello. Their music video had cameo appearances by singer Beak Ji-Young, R&B singers Bumkey and Wheesung, ballad singer KWill, as well as Brand New Music founder Rhymer. Unfortunately, their MV also had cameo appearances by ex-CNBLUE member Jonghyun, and Jung Joon-Young. They have both left the entertainment industry after being involved in the Burning Sun scandal.
I honestly could sit here and give you a detailed history of every song Mamamoo released before and after their debut along with all their awards and nominations and show appearances but we’d be here forever. For now, join me as I fangirl over these queens! LEGGO!!
My History with Mamamoo
I first stumbled upon Mamamoo during a trip I took down to Mexico in 2015. As I mentioned above, I was a huge Sone, so I spent most of my time obsessing over SNSD until I found myself down in Mexico with no wifi and only a handful of downloaded MVs. One of which happened to be Mamamoo’s 2nd single “Piano Man”. I’ll admit that when I first listened to the song I was skeptical but seeing how I had no wifi, no SNSD, and it was one of the few songs I had managed to download, I was stuck with it. After listening to it on repeat for over a week, I slowly fell in love with the song. When I got back home my stalking began.
I watched all of Mamamoo’s live performances of “Piano Man”, then realized that wasn’t their debut song happily stumbled upon “Mr. Ambiguous” and soon after, their pre-debut songs. Without realizing it, I became hooked. I loved their jazzy R&B sound which stood out amongst all the other girl groups I had listened to. As a former sax player, I’ve always admired jazz so I was thrilled to find a girl group that incorporated jazz in their music! I especially love their jazzy “Self-Intro” song and still get goosebumps listening to their scat singing (See below). While I absolutely love Mamamoo’s more recent songs I do miss the jazzy feel of their older songs.
Their Vocals!
Now let’s talk about those vocals. Hands down Mamamoo are vocal queens! They’re known for their stellar live performances which sound almost identical to their studio recordings. Apart from their amazing voices, their harmonies are to die for. They are acapella geniuses and I am often left speechless at how incredible and how effortless their singing is! They’ve made countless appearances on music shows such as Immortal Songs 2 and I’m obsessed. I’ll be making a separate blog on music shows where I’ll talk more about them so stay tuned!
In my opinion, no other girl group beats their singing, and let’s be real, you know they’re good when they introduce themselves by singing their name in flawless harmony. It’s my goal to see them live and I refuse to die until that happens! I was absolutely heartbroken and close to tears when I wasn’t able to go to Kcon and see them perform! It’s ok, I know I’ll meet them one day!
Their unique sound and stunning vocals weren’t the only thing that caught my attention their stages also made me fall in love. Each performance is a display of their passion and raw talent, where they’re able to showcase their individual personalities on stage.
No performance is the same, with each one bringing a new set of adlibs to make it unique and fun. In every performance I watch, I can tell that the girls are enjoying themselves and having fun which is what makes it all the more enjoyable to watch. I also absolutely love their medleys! God, they’re just so good! Mamamoo has a way of creating medleys for end-of-year special stage performances that are just so fun to watch! They will incorporate snippets of popular songs from other k-pop groups like EXO, Sunmi, etc. and string it into an amazing medley alongside their own songs.
K-pop Girl Group Mamamoo: Beagle Idols
Now Mamamoo isn’t just known for their talent they’re also known as “beagle idols”. Just like beagle dogs, they’re cute, loud, and a little obnoxious. I think this also makes Mamamoo stand out from other girl groups. While other girl groups may be playful, a lot of them seem to hold back, Mamamoo, on the other hand, gives zero fucks about being the stereotypical well-behaved girl group. They’re not afraid to be loud when they appear on tv shows and have no problem doing seemingly embarrassing things. They’re hilarious and it’s refreshing to see a girl group be as playful as them.
Not Like the Other K-pop Girl Groups
It’s also refreshing to see that Mamamoo also does their own thing concept-wise. They don’t follow the stereotypical cutesy girl group concept, instead, they lean more towards a girl crush concept with their own added flair. They’re crushing it with their girl crush concept so much so that most of their fans are girls and I’m loving it!
They’re also not afraid to push boundaries when it comes to their wardrobe. Moonbyul with her androgynous style and Hwasa has garnered attention with her more revealing outfits, which she rocks! (I’ll be doing a separate blog on Mamamoo’s controversies and will talk more about Hwasa’s clothes so stay tuned). They’re also not afraid to incorporate the LGBTQ+ community in their performances; they’ve done a couple of stages with drag queens which I thought was awesome! Being part of the LGBTQ+ community myself, it’s always good to see a group that is trying to be inclusive!
My Bias!
If you haven’t noticed by now I really love Mamamoo, so I think it’s only appropriate to let y’all know who my bias is. My bias is EXO Xiumin’s look-alike, Moonbyul!! What can I say I got a thing for dancers, but Wheein is constantly trying to take Moonbyul’s spot because she’s absolutely adorable and I also got a thing for dimples!
Now I love all of Mamamoo and honestly, I’m constantly getting biased wrecked by all the members. I would have loved to explain why I love each one but that sounds like another blog topic so stay tuned!
Hope that was enough of a taste of k-pop girl group Mamamoo to motivate you to check more of their stuff out! Join the fandom, there’s plenty of room!
