LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISEN, I'll be the first one to own up to not quite getting Cortis' music when they began dropping songs a few months ago.

Part of it was that I legit CANNOT DEAL with their MVs (which are chaotic to the point of overwhelming me in the most negative of ways.) The other thing is that a lot (by which I mean over 50%) of the PR abt BigHit's newest group (yes, that's BTS and TXT's agency) was pushing how involved the members were in terms of songwriting and production. Per what I know of BH (and Hybe's agencies in general) is that they do tend to offer songwriting and production tracks for their trainees. A large part of the thinking comes from how BH worked with BTS (especially the rapline, but all 7 members have worked on their music since pre-debut era).

In any case, I do acknowledge that a lot of my 🤨 came from my own expectations on what Cortis' sound was gonna be like. I wasn't ready for any of it. That said, I sat thru all of the MVs (not having a great time, but still.) Even though I would 🙄 at the videos (which were co-directed by Cortis and some other guy), there was something abt the sound that kept me from outright dismissing the whole thing.

Then, some weeks ago, I happen to listen to Cortis' music on streaming and it was like something clicked in my brain. Suddenly, I got it. Have checked out a few of their live performances and have enjoyed most of them.

Anyhoodle, the 2025 Mnet Asian Music Awards (or MAMAs as they're known) were held over in Hong Kong two weeks ago. Not even gonna front, I didn't tune in for the live show cuz there truly wasn't anyone I was RARIN' to watch. Some years is like that, LOL. [Unlike the 2020 shows where I watched the show for, like, 6 hrs or so while waiting for BTS to perform, LOLsob. My one consolation is that there were millions of other ARMYs watching along. Small mercies and all that.]

Scrolled thru this year's performances once they were uploaded on YT. And my jaw DROPPED when I saw Cortis' stage. One thing to keep in mind is that this group has mainly young members; Martin, the leader, is 17 y.o., frex.

Trigger warning: lots of happy screams from the fans; A ton of fast camera movements (that are on par with Korean shows) including shaky-cams; Additional warnings for HEAVY STROBE LIGHTS starting 3:10 and going til the end.

Watch on YouTube

I love the set-up with Martin working his keyboard (with the additional work from MAMAs' PD team synching up the lightsticks to represent the lights of a soundboard/equalizer thingie.)

Then how it expands to just the five members doing their choreo in between singing and rapping. Yes, there was backing track (per what I saw of everyone's performances, there wasn't a single performer who didn't have it. However, unlike some of the other artists, Cortis DID sing and rapped live at least 60% of the time, IJS.).

FWIW, I'm aware that the production team has tweaked the sound a little to push the crowds' roar to the forefront. I did see a few tweets (now locked) that were fancams and the crowds were HELLA LOUD for Cortis. It was impressive; gave me chills, heheh.