Nominees Locked, Votes Open: Your Guide to Choosing K-Pop’s 2026 Winners

The 2026 MAMA Awards have announced their nominees, and fans can already vote. Here’s a quick guide to the highlights, the dates you need, and how the winners get chosen.…

By Reetam Bodhak

October 12, 2026

3 min read

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The 2026 MAMA Awards have announced their nominees, and fans can already vote. Here’s a quick guide to the highlights, the dates you need, and how the winners get chosen.

2026 MAMA Awards

Detail	Info
Ceremony	Kyocera Dome Osaka, November 20–21 (per CJ ENM’s announcement)
Eligibility	Music released Oct 1, 2025 – Sept 30, 2026
Fans’ Choice Round 1	Through October 22, 11:59 p.m. KST
Fans’ Choice Round 2	October 28, 6 p.m. KST – November 18, 11:59 p.m. KST
Where to vote	Mnet Plus (90% weight) and X (10% weight)

Who’s Nominated?

The lists are packed. A few headline categories:

Best New Artist: ALPHA DRIVE ONE, AND2BLE, EVAN, H//PE Princess, hrtz.wav, LNGSHOT, MODYSSEY, OURBIRTHDAY, TUIDE and UNCHILD.
Best Male Group: ATEEZ, BIGBANG, BTS, CORTIS, ENHYPEN, NCT WISH, Stray Kids and TXT.
Best Female Group: aespa, BABYMONSTER, BLACKPINK, Hearts2Hearts, ILLIT, IVE, LE SSERAFIM and NMIXX.
Album of the Year: 18 albums that sold over a million copies, including BTS’s ARIRANG and BLACKPINK’s DEADLINE, plus releases from EXO, Stray Kids, TXT and PLAVE.

Fans of Korean dramas should note that the Best OST category includes “Love Language” from Can This Love Be Translated?, sung by MeloMance’s Kim Min Seok. Read our take on that show in our Can This Love Be Translated review.

How Winners Are Chosen?

Each award has its own formula, so your vote matters most in Fans’ Choice:

Artist of the Year and artist awards: 40% jury, 30% streaming and downloads, 30% physical album sales.
Song of the Year and genre awards: 50% jury, 50% streaming and downloads.
Album of the Year: 40% jury, 60% physical album sales.
Best Music Video and Best Choreography: 100% jury.
Fans’ Choice of the Year: 90% Mnet Plus, 10% X, plus an extra 10% from live Mnet Plus votes.

How Fans’ Choice Voting Works?

Round 1 is a pre-vote for the Fans’ Choice Male and Female categories. The top 20 in each category move on to Round 2, which runs from October 28 through November 18. With the first round closing October 22, you have about ten days left to back your favourites.

Both categories have huge lists. They range from big names like BTS, BLACKPINK and SEVENTEEN to rookies like KiiiKiii and ALLDAY PROJECT, so every fandom has a chance.

What to Watch?

Expect tight races. Several acts appear in multiple categories, like ATEEZ and CORTIS in both group and dance awards, and IVE and ILLIT in choreography. Because jury scores and sales count heavily for the big prizes, fan votes will matter most for the Fans’ Choice trophies.

Want the full event rundown? Check our guide to the 2026 MAMA Awards in Osaka, and read up on the show’s history on Wikipedia’s MAMA Awards page.