Red Velvet Irene is shaking up the MAMA Awards fan vote—and stirring some controversy.

The Red Velvet leader, who only went solo last year after 10 years as an idol, just landed 2nd place in MAMA’s popularity rankings for female acts. Only IU ranked higher. That means Irene beat out younger girl groups like ILLIT, BABYMONSTER, and aespa.

Her fans, known as Baetokkis, have been solidly supporting her, making her solo mini album the highest-selling female solo release under SM Entertainment. This vote surge is now making waves again.

While Irene’s fandom is celebrating, other fans are confused by her high spot.

How can Irene raise to no. 2?
Doesn’t make sense at all
— KLFU (@luiwai55)

Baetokkis are not surprised by the results.

one thing for sure… baetokkis are always consistent in supporting our IRENE this is the fruit of our hardwork today is the last day, let’s all vote for our soloist

2025MAMAVOTE #irene

— bjh2 (@ireneeebaeee)

Irene is also the only female act in the MAMA hashtag top 10 on X (formerly Twitter), where votes count for 10% of totals.

UPDATE #2025MAMAVOTE
Hurry up and vote!
Data since OCT 30th (not included data before the 30th of OCT).
Source: @AudienseCo
— Tweet Binder (@TweetBinder)

With MAMA voting closing soon, Irene looks set to take home a major Bonsang award.

Fans got even more excited with news that Irene will drop a full album early next year.