Jennie recently dropped her single Mantras and promoted it in various ways, including pre-recording performances for Korean music shows. However, controversy arose following the October 19 episode of MBC Musical core.
Before the show aired, many expected Jennie to be nominated alongside Aespa’s Karina (On) and QWER (My name is Malgeum). A popular account known for analyzing music show scores had even shared a pre-show ranking, in which Jennie was in the top three, with a clear lead over the other artists.
But when the episode aired, fans were shocked to see that Jennie hadn’t been nominated. Instead, the men’s group AB6IX was in the running, with Karina ultimately winning. Fans speculated that Jennie was Mantras was disqualified due to the “explicit” version of the music video, which contains the word “ass”. This likely resulted in points being removed from the SNS category, which includes music video views.
Outraged fans quickly took to social media, accusing MBC of unfairly snubbing Jennie. While most fans did not blame AB6IX for the outcome, they pointed out a double standard, comparing the lyrics of Mantras and AB6IX NVCKED. Many highlighted the alleged misogyny behind the decision, claiming that Jennie’s song had been unfairly penalized.
