BTS wins grand prizes at Melon Music Awards 2026 Day 1

K-pop supergroup BTS took home four major awards during the first day of the 2026 Melon Music Awards (MMA), held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea, on Saturday, Nov. 14.

BTS won Album of the Year (Daesang) for its album “ARIRANG.” They also won Global TOP10, Top 10 Artists (Bonsang), and Stage of the Year for its “ARIRANG” World Tour, giving the group four awards in total. However, the group was not present at the ceremony due to its ongoing world tour.

Girl group aespa received the Global-K Artist of the Year award, a newly introduced grand prize category at this year’s ceremony, while RESCENE and Hearts2Hearts also emerged as among the night’s multiple winners, receiving three awards each.

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RESCENE won Global TOP10, Hot Trend, and KakaoBank Everyone’s Star, while Hearts2Hearts received Global TOP10, TOP10, and Global Impact Artist awards. I.O.I, meanwhile, took home two awards: TOP10 and Best Music Style.

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Other winners included Yena for Best Solo – Female, Lim Young Woong for Best Solo – Male, and Kim Min Seok of MeloMance for Best OST for “Love Language,” from the Netflix series “Can This Love Be Translated?”

Bruno Mars was named Best Pop Artist, while Nicole Kim of BIGHIT MUSIC received Best Producer. ATEEZ and RIIZE shared Best Performance – Male, while TWS shared the Global Impact Artist award with Hearts2Hearts.

The first day of the 18th edition of the annual awards drew approximately 18,000 attendees and featured performances from 14 acts, including aespa, ATEEZ, RIIZE, I.O.I, TWS, Yena, and NCT DREAM.

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Day 2 of the ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 12, at 6 p.m. 

Here is the complete list of winners from Day 1:

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Album of the Year: BTS – “ARIRANG”

Global-K Artist of the Year: aespa

Global TOP10: RIIZE, RESCENE, G-Dragon, aespa, BTS, Hearts2Hearts