BTS and aespa Win Grand Prizes as MMA 2026 Opens With 18,000 Fans

Two Grand Prizes Open a Bigger Melon Music Awards

BTS won Album of the Year for ARIRANG and aespa became the first recipient of Global-K Artist of the Year at the Melon Music Awards 2026 on November 14, as the ceremony began its first edition spread across two days. According to Melon, 18,000 people attended the opening day at Seoul's Gocheok Sky Dome.

BTS collected three awards despite being absent while on a world tour. RESCENE and Hearts2Hearts also finished the evening with three awards each, while aespa, RIIZE, ATEEZ and I.O.I each received two. The results put newer groups alongside established performers across awards for music, performance and audience support.

Two of the ceremony's five Daesang, the Korean term for grand prize, were announced on the first day. Artist of the Year, Best Song of the Year and Record of the Year were scheduled for November 15, along with Rookie of the Year and other remaining categories.

The event is organized through Melon, Kakao Entertainment's music streaming platform. Its expanded schedule divided both performances and award announcements across November 14 and 15 at the same venue. For fans following the results, the opening night's TOP10 announcements were therefore only part of the ceremony's awards programme.

BTS Takes Three Awards With ARIRANG

BTS received Album of the Year, Stage of the Year and Global TOP10. ARIRANG, the group's fifth studio album, was released in March and contains 14 tracks. Its title track, SWIM, reached No. 1 on Melon's Top 100 within one hour of release, while all 14 songs entered the chart.

Those figures show the breadth of the album's initial audience: listeners brought the entire track list onto the chart, alongside the leading single. At the awards, BTS received recognition for the album, its stage work and its place among the Global TOP10 artists.

The Album of the Year nominees also included aespa's Lemonade, AKMU's Flowering, Cortis's Green Green and IVE's Revive Plus. Actress Lee Young-ae introduced the album award during the ceremony.

BTS did not attend, and no acceptance video was shown. BIGHIT MUSIC vice president Kim Hyun-jung, who appeared to receive Best Producer, described a year in which the group released ARIRANG after an interval of about three years and nine months and met fans through a world tour. She thanked the seven members, their fans and the staff involved in their work.

aespa Wins the New Global-K Grand Prize

aespa received the newly introduced Global-K Artist of the Year award from Lee Young-ae and also joined the Global TOP10, bringing the group's total to two awards. The new grand prize recognizes an artist associated with strong performance on Melon's Global-K Chart, which brings together K-pop chart activity from South Korea, China and Japan.

The winner of Global-K Artist of the Year was selected entirely by judges. Melon's official rules list the category as Global-K of the Year and specify 100% panel review. That makes its selection process different from the Global TOP10 category, which combines chart scores, judging and voting.

Winter, an aespa member, thanked MY, the name of the group's fan community. In remarks translated from Korean, she said:

Thank you for believing in us more than we believe in ourselves, even in moments when we cannot believe in ourselves, and for always supporting us from the same place.

Winter said the group would work to repay that love and asked fans to look forward to the coming years. Fellow member Karina thanked SM Entertainment's management, staff and dancers, connecting the award to the people who help prepare the group's performances.

Karina also described the prize as a gift ahead of aespa's sixth debut anniversary on November 17. The award arrived three days before that anniversary, giving the group's acceptance speech a personal milestone alongside the competitive result.

How Charts, Judges and Fan Votes Shaped the Results

Melon's TOP10 and Global TOP10 awards use similar percentages but draw on different measures of music activity. TOP10 combines digital music performance at 60%, judging at 20% and voting at 20%. Global TOP10 uses Global-K Chart scores at 60%, judging at 20% and voting at 20%.

Melon's official MMA2026 award criteria confirm those formulas. The same 60% digital score, 20% panel review and 20% votes formula applies to Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, New Artist of the Year and the Best awards for solo artists, groups, OST and pop artist. Record of the Year and the special awards, including Stage of the Year, are decided entirely by panel review.

For Global TOP10, the official evaluation period runs from May 11 to October 14, 2026. Each artist's cumulative Global-K Chart score combines Melon, TME and LINE MUSIC chart data at a 1:1:1 ratio, regardless of release date. The category selects 30 nominees using cumulative Global-K Chart scores before applying the 60% chart, 20% judging and 20% fan voting formula to choose 10 recipients. Domestic voting takes place on Melon and overseas voting on Berriz.

In practical terms, each category combines listening activity with assessments by judges and choices made by voters. For every 100 points available, 60 come from the relevant music or chart measure, 20 from judging and 20 from voting.

The KakaoBank Everyone's Star award, won by RESCENE, gives voting a much larger role: votes account for 80% of the result. That is four times the voting share used for TOP10 and Global TOP10, comparing 80% with 20%. The official criteria assign the remaining 20% to panel review, with voting held through the KakaoBank mobile app.

The first day named six Global TOP10 recipients: RIIZE, RESCENE, G-Dragon, aespa, BTS and Hearts2Hearts. Hearts2Hearts and I.O.I were announced for TOP10. Across those two distinct categories, seven different acts received recognition on the opening day, with Hearts2Hearts appearing in both.

RESCENE and Hearts2Hearts Join BTS on Three Wins

RESCENE collected Global TOP10, Hot Trend and KakaoBank Everyone's Star. Its awards covered chart recognition, a trend category and an award with an especially large voting component.

Hearts2Hearts won Global TOP10, TOP10 and Global Impact Artist. The group was the only act named on both of the first day's TOP10 lists and shared Global Impact Artist with TWS.

RIIZE won Global TOP10 and Best Performance in the male category, while ATEEZ received Best Performance in the male category and Hot Trend. Both categories had two recipients on the opening night.

I.O.I received TOP10 and Best Music Style after reuniting in May for its tenth anniversary. The group performed Suddenly, the song associated with that reunion, alongside WHATTA MAN. Its two awards added another anniversary story to an evening that also featured aespa's approaching sixth anniversary and NCT DREAM's tenth anniversary year.

The Complete First Day Winners

The opening day's awards recognized albums, individual singers, group performances, production and music connected to television. Yena and Lim Young Woong received the female and male solo awards, respectively, while Bruno Mars won Best Pop Artist.

The winners announced on November 14 were:

• Album of the Year: BTS, ARIRANG.
• Global-K Artist of the Year: aespa.
• Global TOP10: RIIZE, RESCENE, G-Dragon, aespa, BTS and Hearts2Hearts.
• TOP10: Hearts2Hearts and I.O.I.
• Best Solo, Female: Yena.
• Best Solo, Male: Lim Young Woong.
• Best OST: Kim Min Seok of MeloMance, Love Language, from Can This Love Be Translated?
• Best Pop Artist: Bruno Mars.
• Stage of the Year: BTS.
• Best Performance, Male: ATEEZ and RIIZE.
• Best Music Style: I.O.I.
• Global Impact Artist: Hearts2Hearts and TWS.
• Global Rising Artist: TUIDE.
• Hot Trend: ATEEZ and RESCENE.
• Best Producer: Nicole Kim of BIGHIT MUSIC; BIGHIT MUSIC vice president Kim Hyun-jung received the award at the ceremony.
• KakaoBank Everyone's Star: RESCENE.
• J-pop Favorite Artist: HANA.

Kim Min Seok's prize recognized a song from a television drama. OST means original soundtrack, the music created or selected to accompany a screen production. HANA's award recognized a Japanese pop act, while TUIDE received the category dedicated to a rising artist.

From Dragon Pony to aespa, a Broad Performance Programme

The first day's performance programme featured 14 acts: Dragon Pony, TUIDE, AEN, IDID, Hearts2Hearts, HANA, RESCENE, TWS, Yena, RIIZE, I.O.I, aespa, ATEEZ and NCT DREAM. AEN and IDID shared a performance segment.

All 14 acts had been announced for November 14 in the opening-day lineup.

Dragon Pony performed Not Out and Calling Back, while TUIDE presented SUN KISS and GRLS. AEN and IDID's segment featured X to Z and FLY!, and Hearts2Hearts performed 15-LOVE and RUDE!.

HANA's set included Blue Jeans, NON STOP and ROSE. RESCENE performed With, Deja Vu and LOVE ATTACK, while TWS presented OVERDRIVE and You, You. Several award recipients therefore appeared onstage both as performers and as winners.

Yena performed FIESTA, SMILEY and Catch Catch. RIIZE's set featured INSOMNIA, Overdrive and Do your dance, while aespa performed WDA, Switchblade and LEMONADE. The latter connected the group's stage directly with the album that had also been nominated for Album of the Year.

NCT DREAM Closes the Opening Night

ATEEZ performed UP, Drip and BAD during an evening in which the group also won two awards. NCT DREAM then closed the ceremony with a set featuring BOOM, Better Than Gold and Boogie Woogie.

NCT DREAM's appearance came during its tenth anniversary year. The closing performance brought together songs from different points in the group's catalogue and its new song Boogie Woogie, making the final stage a separate attraction from the night's award announcements.

The programme also gave space to acts whose names did not appear among the announced winners, including Dragon Pony, AEN and IDID. The ceremony's stage schedule extended beyond the recipients of that day's prizes.

November 15 Brings the Remaining Major Awards

The second day was scheduled for November 15 at Gocheok Sky Dome, with 12 acts expected to perform, including IVE, NCT 127 and Cortis. Three grand prizes remained to be awarded: Artist of the Year, Best Song of the Year and Record of the Year.

Rookie of the Year was also scheduled for the second day. Its recipient and the winners of the remaining grand prizes had not been announced when the first day ended.

The dates connecting the music releases, ceremony and anniversary celebrations were:

• March 2026: BTS released its fifth studio album, ARIRANG.
• May 2026: I.O.I reunited for its tenth anniversary project.
• November 14, 2026: MMA opened at Gocheok Sky Dome, announcing two grand prizes and other awards.
• November 15, 2026: The second ceremony was scheduled to announce the remaining grand prizes and Rookie of the Year.
• November 17, 2026: aespa's sixth debut anniversary.

For the opening night's leading winners, the results were already substantial: BTS, RESCENE and Hearts2Hearts each had three awards, while aespa held the first Global-K Artist of the Year title. The next day's announcements would complete the picture across the ceremony's major categories.

Key Points

• BTS won Album of the Year for ARIRANG, Stage of the Year and Global TOP10.
• aespa won the new Global-K Artist of the Year grand prize and Global TOP10.
• RESCENE and Hearts2Hearts each collected three awards.
• Melon said 18,000 people attended the first day at Seoul's Gocheok Sky Dome.
• NCT DREAM closed a performance programme featuring 14 acts.
• The remaining three grand prizes and Rookie of the Year were scheduled for November 15.