When a celebrity wins an award for their work, it’s typically a call for celebration. However, Red Velvet (레드벨벳) leader Irene (아이린) surprised fans after revealing that she didn’t know about her recent MAMA 2025 win.
Last weekend, Mnet held its annual MAMA Awards at the Kai Tak Stadium in Hong Kong. One of the categories awarded during the event was the “Fans’ Choice Top 10” Bonsang (main prize), which ranks the top 10 idols, as voted by global fans. During the event, Irene won in the female category, underscoring her immense popularity.
A few days later, while interacting with the idol on the Bubble messaging app, Reveluvs (Red Velvet fans) brought up her latest achievement and congratulated the star on her win. However, Irene reacted with surprise, seemingly unaware that she had won an award. She wrote, “Ah…? I got an award? No one told me though.. Oh my god”.
After learning the award was voting-based, Irene thanked fans for the support, writing, “Oh my… I see it’s an award Luvies (fans) really worked hard on voting for!!! I didn’t know, I’m so sorry, thank you”. Since the idol wasn’t at the event to receive the award, she also apologised for only learning about her win days later.
The interaction prompted mixed reactions from fans. Some were amused that Irene didn’t know that she had won an award, even though it was from a major ceremony like MAMA. However, others slammed SM Entertainment for not informing her of the win, with some lamenting that the label doesn’t care about their artist’s achievements.
It’s baffling how an artist wouldn’t know about winning an award, even if they weren’t at the ceremony to receive the honour. What are your thoughts on this?
