BTS at the 2026 MAMA Awards: Every Nomination, How to Vote and When to Watch

Only one BTS category is decided by fans, and that's Fans' Choice Male, where BTS is one of 60 acts on the first-round ballot. MAMA's official judging criteria say the five main nominations are decided by a jury and/or sales and streaming data. Your daily votes don't count toward Artist of the Year or Album of the Year.

Every BTS nomination at MAMA 2026

Here's every category BTS is in, with the scoring split MAMA published for that award. Releases from Oct. 1, 2025 through Sept. 30, 2026 are eligible, so ARIRANG (released March 20, 2026) and all of its songs qualify.

Most outlets count five BTS nominations and leave out the Fans' Choice ballot, which lists 60 acts in round 1. Forbes put BTS at seven. Cover Media's breakdown shows that figure is the five group nominations plus the two that j-hope shares as a featured artist (below).

j-hope's nominations as a featured artist

Both are listed under LE SSERAFIM, with j-hope credited as the featured artist. Soompi's full nominee list has no solo nominations for RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V or Jung Kook.

Who BTS is up against

• Artist of the Year: 36 nominees. Every act nominated for Best New Artist, Best Male Artist, Best Female Artist, Best Male Group or Best Female Group is automatically included.
• Album of the Year: 18 albums, including BLACKPINK's DEADLINE, Stray Kids' THIS & THAT, aespa's LEMONADE, EXO's REVERXE, ENHYPEN's THE SIN : VANISH and TXT's 7TH YEAR: A Moment of Stillness in the Thorns.
• Best Male Group: ATEEZ, BIGBANG, CORTIS, ENHYPEN, NCT WISH, Stray Kids and TXT.
• Best Vocal Performance Group: AKMU, Davichi, DxS (SEVENTEEN) and MAMAMOO.
• Best Music Video with YouTube: BIGBANG ("BiiiG"), Hwasa ("Good Goodbye"), i-dle ("Mono") and MEOVV ("DDI RO RI").

Song of the Year nominees haven't been named yet. They'll be the "Best Song Top 10," which is ranked 100% on downloads and streaming. Until MAMA publishes that list, nobody knows whether "SWIM" or any other BTS song is in it.

MAMA 2026 date, venue and US time

• Where to watch: CJ ENM says the show streams live worldwide on Mnet Plus. A US TV broadcast hasn't been announced.
• Start time: Not announced yet. US clocks fall back on Nov. 1, so Osaka will be 14 hours ahead of ET. An evening start in Osaka would fall in the early morning ET on the same date (for example, 6 p.m. in Osaka would be 4 a.m. ET).
• Extras: MAMA is also running a new MAMA FAN FESTA. Forbes reports it starts Nov. 9.

How to vote for BTS at MAMA 2026

Fans vote in only three places: Fans' Choice Male, Fans' Choice Female and the Fans' Choice of the Year grand prize. Fans' Choice of the Year is scored as Mnet Plus votes 90% + X votes 10%, plus an additional 10% from a live Mnet Plus vote.

Voting on Mnet Plus (90% of the score)

1. Open the Mnet Plus app, sign in to your account and go to the 2026 MAMA AWARDS Fans' Choice voting page.
2. Pick at least 1 and up to 3 acts in the Male category (BTS is there) and do the same in the Female category. A session only counts once you've voted in both.
3. Press the final submit button.

The official rules allow one vote per day per ID and device, counted by Korea time. Voting for the same artist twice in one session isn't allowed, and votes cast through "abnormal methods or access" don't count. The Korea day resets at midnight KST, which is 11 a.m. EDT (10 a.m. EST after Nov. 1). That's the time US fans should set a daily reminder for.

Voting on X (10% of the score)

MAMA counts X posts for 10% of both Fans' Choice rounds. Before you post, check the hashtag format in the latest notices from the official @MnetMAMA account.

Will BTS attend or perform at MAMA 2026?

Not announced. Here's what's actually confirmed as of Oct. 13:

• First lineup, Chapter 1 (Nov. 20): ALPHA DRIVE ONE, BABYMONSTER, ENHYPEN, ILLIT, INI, NCT WISH and RESCENE.
• First lineup, Chapter 2 (Nov. 21): CORTIS, KiiiKiii, LE SSERAFIM, Nayeon (TWICE) and ZEROBASEONE. LE SSERAFIM is on the bill, but no j-hope appearance has been announced.
• More names are coming. Soompi reports that further lineup announcements are planned.
• BTS's own schedule: The official BTS tour site lists BTS WORLD TOUR 'ARIRANG' shows at Kaohsiung National Stadium in Taiwan on Nov. 19, 21 and 22. Nov. 21 is also MAMA's Chapter 2 night. See our ARIRANG tour dates page for the full schedule.

MAMA has said more performers will be announced. We'll only list BTS as attending once MAMA or BIGHIT MUSIC confirms it.

BTS MAMA Awards 2026 winners

There are no winners yet. Every award is revealed live during the two ceremonies on Nov. 20 and 21, 2026. Any "leaked winners" list you see before then is made up. When results come in, we'll add them to the nomination table above with the date.

Want the album behind most of these nominations? Our ARIRANG tracklist guide covers every song, version and chart record.

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