Nominees were announced on October 28, 2016, through the 2016 MAMA Nomination Special Live Broadcast aired on Mnet streamed nationally and globally.

In Sri Lanka and Thailand, it was made available to stream on Iflix 24 hours after its broadcast in South Korea.

[citation needed] The following individuals and groups, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or performed musical numbers.

Winners would be selected based on six categories including online voting and evaluation from MAMA professional panel.

[9][10] Following the announcement of the nominees on October 28, online voting opened on the official MAMA website via PC and mobile web.