2026 MAMA Awards Nominees: BTS, BLACKPINK, BIGBANG & How to Vote

by Hannah / Oct 12, 2026 02:50 PM EDT

CJ ENM announced the nominees for the 2026 MAMA Awards on Oct. 12, putting BTS's ARIRANG, BLACKPINK's DEADLINE, EXO's REVERXE and Stray Kids' THIS & THAT among 18 albums up for Album of the Year. Only albums that sold at least 1 million copies qualified for that category, and all music had to be released between Oct. 1, 2025, and Sept. 30, 2026.

BTS is one of eight acts in Best Male Group, alongside ATEEZ, BIGBANG, CORTIS, ENHYPEN, NCT WISH, Stray Kids and TXT. The group also has "SWIM" in Best Vocal Performance Group and "2.0" in Best Music Video, where BIGBANG's "BiiiG" is a rival nominee. BIGBANG, now on its 20th-anniversary world tour, has "BiiiG" in Best Dance Performance Male Group as well, and Taeyang is nominated on his own for Best Male Artist and for Best Dance Performance Male Solo with "LIVE FAST DIE SLOW."

BTS and Stray Kids both skipped this year's Grammy submissions. BTS announced in July that it would sit out the 2027 Grammys over the new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category, and Stray Kids made the same choice, the Korea Herald reported. Both groups are on the MAMA ballot in multiple categories.

Best Female Group has eight nominees: aespa, BABYMONSTER, BLACKPINK, Hearts2Hearts, ILLIT, IVE, LE SSERAFIM and NMIXX. Best New Artist has ten, including AND2BLE, LNGSHOT and EVAN, the name Heeseung now uses after leaving ENHYPEN. The solo artist fields are Doh Kyung Soo, Taeyang, Taeyong, Yeonjun and Young K of DAY6 for men, and Hwasa, Irene, Soyeon, Taeyeon and Yena for women. Jennie's "Less than a Lover" is up for Best Vocal Performance Solo against Hwasa, IU, Roy Kim and WOODZ.

For US readers, the Best Collaboration list includes "ICONIC BY MISTAKE," a track shared by LE SSERAFIM, ILLIT and KATSEYE. LE SSERAFIM's "SPAGHETTI" with j-hope and aespa's "WDA (Whole Different Animal)" with G-Dragon are also nominated.

Artist of the Year has 36 nominees because every act nominated in an artist category is automatically on that list. The prize is weighted 40 percent to a jury, 30 percent to streaming and downloads, split evenly between Korea and global, and 30 percent to physical album sales. Album of the Year gives physical sales 60 percent and the jury 40 percent.

Fans' Choice is weighted 90 percent to Mnet Plus votes and 10 percent to votes on X. The first round closes Oct. 22 at 11:59 p.m. KST, and 20 male and 20 female artists move on to a second round running from Oct. 28 at 6 p.m. KST through Nov. 18 at 11:59 p.m. KST. Last year in Hong Kong, G-Dragon won Artist of the Year and Stray Kids took Album of the Year for KARMA.

The 2026 ceremony is scheduled for Nov. 20-21 at Kyocera Dome Osaka, according to CJ ENM's March announcement, and will stream live on Mnet Plus.