2026 MAMA Awards Nominees Revealed as Fan Voting Opens

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The race for the 2026 MAMA AWARDS is officially on. Nominations for one of the biggest ceremonies in K-pop were announced on October 12, and voting for the Fans' Choice categories opened the same evening. The show heads to Osaka, Japan. Organiser CJ ENM has confirmed the ceremony for November 20 and 21 at the Kyocera Dome Osaka, with a live worldwide stream on Mnet Plus. Visa is the title sponsor. The big categories Best Male Group is a heavyweight list: ATEEZ, BIGBANG, BTS, CORTIS, ENHYPEN, NCT WISH, Stray Kids and TXT. Best Female Group features aespa, BABYMONSTER, BLACKPINK, Hearts2Hearts, ILLIT, IVE, LE SSERAFIM and NMIXX. In the solo races, Best Male Artist nominees are Doh Kyung Soo, Taeyang, Taeyong, Yeonjun and Young K of DAY6. Best Female Artist goes to Hwasa, Irene, Soyeon, Taeyeon and Yena, according to Soompi. Best New Artist has ten contenders: ALPHA DRIVE ONE, AND2BLE, EVAN, H//PE Princess, hrtz.wav, LNGSHOT, MODYSSEY, OURBIRTHDAY, TUIDE and UNCHILD. Album of the Year needs a million sales Only albums that sold more than one million copies qualify for Album of the Year. The 18 nominees include BTS's ARIRANG, Stray Kids' THIS & THAT, BLACKPINK's DEADLINE, aespa's LEMONADE, ATEEZ's GOLDEN HOUR : Part.5, ENHYPEN's THE SIN : VANISH, IVE's REVIVE+, EXO's REVERXE, RIIZE's II and &TEAM's Mark on Me. The BTS run has been a big story all year, including their record Lima concerts . Hwasa's strong showing MAMAMOO's Hwasa is one of the most visible names on the list. "Good Goodbye" appears in both Best Vocal Performance Solo and Best Music Video, and she is also up for Best Female Artist. MAMAMOO are nominated as a group for Best Vocal Performance Group with "4 Flowers". BTS also cross several categories, with "SWIM" in Best Vocal Performance Group and "2.0" in Best Music Video. IVE's "BANG BANG" features in both Best Choreography and Best Dance Performance Female Group. Other notable nominations Best Vocal Performance Solo: Hwasa, IU, Jennie, Roy Kim and WOODZ Best Vocal Performance Group: AKMU, BTS, Davichi, DxS (SEVENTEEN) and MAMAMOO Best Collaboration: aespa with G-Dragon, Dayoung X Jay Park, LE SSERAFIM with j-hope, LE SSERAFIM, ILLIT and KATSEYE's "ICONIC BY MISTAKE", and Parc Jae Jung with NMIXX's Sullyoon Best Band Performance: Silica Gel, JANNABI, LUCY, QWER and Xdinary Heroes Best Rap & Hip Hop Performance: BIG Naughty, HAON, NOWIMYOUNG, TREASURE, and Zico with Lilas Davichi's "TIME CAPSULE" nod follows their third KSPO Dome sell-out . How winners are chosen Soompi lays out the scoring system. Artist of the Year and the artist categories are judged 40% by a jury, 30% by streaming and downloads (split equally between Korea and global) and 30% by physical album sales. Song of the Year and the genre awards are split 50% jury and 50% streaming and downloads. Album of the Year weighs 40% jury and 60% physical sales. Best Music Video and Best Choreography are decided entirely by the jury. Best Song Top 10 is based entirely on streaming and downloads, and those ten songs become the Song of the Year nominees. Every act nominated in the artist categories is automatically nominated for Artist of the Year, giving 36 names on that list. To be eligible, music had to be released between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026. Key facts Nominations announced: October 12, 2026 Ceremony: November 20–21, Kyocera Dome Osaka, Japan Fans' Choice round 1: to October 22, 11:59pm KST Fans' Choice round 2: October 28, 6pm KST to November 18, 11:59pm KST Voting platforms: Mnet Plus (90%) and X (10%) Eligibility window: October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026 Fans' Choice voting The Fans' Choice Male and Female lists are long, with 50 acts each. First-round voting runs until October 22 at 11:59pm KST. The top 20 in each category then move to a second round from October 28 at 6pm KST until November 18 at 11:59pm KST. Both rounds are weighted 90% Mnet Plus votes and 10% X votes. For Fans' Choice of the Year, Soompi adds that an extra 10% comes from live Mnet Plus votes. Koreaboo notes that the first vote opened at 7pm KST on October 12, which was 11am WAT. What's next Fans have ten days to push their favourites through the first round before the shortlist of 20 per category is set. The Best Song Top 10, which decides the Song of the Year nominees, is still to come. Several nominees are also busy with new releases, including the IVE, ILLIT and RIIZE comebacks on October 26 . Follow our awards coverage for winners from Osaka. Sources: Soompi | Koreaboo | CJ ENM