DAY6’s Young K and TREASURE took the top honors as the 2026 Korea Grand Music Awards (KGMA) wrapped up its first night, Artist Day, on November 7 at Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome.
Young K emerged as the night’s biggest winner, sweeping five awards including the Grand Artist prize, one of the ceremony’s three grand prizes. According to Soompi, he also took Best Artist, Best Solo, Best OST for “Season of Us” from the drama “My Royal Nemesis,” and the coogoong Most Popular Artist award for Artist Day. Edaily, which covered the ceremony for the organizing newspaper Ilgan Sports, confirmed the five-trophy haul and described the Grand Artist award as going to an artist who left a symbolic mark on K-pop over the past year.
TREASURE claimed the Grand Song prize, the ceremony’s top honor for music, along with three more trophies: Best Artist, Best Hip Hop, and Trend of the Year in the group category. It was the group’s first Daesang win, capping a year in which the group has stayed near the top of the conversation among fourth-generation boy groups.
The third grand prize of the night, Grand Honor’s Choice, was shared by two acts: RESCENE and AND2BLE. RESCENE took four awards in total, also winning Best Artist, Best Memory, and the Berriz Global Fans’ Choice award, while their producer Josh Lee of The Muze Entertainment won Best Producer. AND2BLE won two awards including their share of Grand Honor’s Choice. CRAVITY rounded out the night’s big winners with three trophies, including Best Stage and Best Music Video for “AWAKE.”
The Best Artist category, the ceremony’s broadest honor, went to 15 acts: LUCY, RESCENE, MEOVV, BTS, BLACKPINK, Stray Kids, xikers, Young K, ALLDAY PROJECT, CORTIS, CRAVITY, CLOSE YOUR EYES, TREASURE, tripleS, and P1Harmony. The list underlined how wide the ceremony casts its net, mixing established stadium acts such as BTS, BLACKPINK, and Stray Kids with rising groups like CORTIS, ALLDAY PROJECT, and CLOSE YOUR EYES.
Elsewhere, LUCY won Best Band, Jang Min Ho took Best Trot Performance, IDID won Best Dance Performance, and FIFTY FIFTY shared the Best Stage honor with CRAVITY. Dayoung won Best Solo alongside Young K and was also named Style Icon, while MADEIN took the Photogenic award and NCT WISH’s Yushi won the K-Wave Popularity Award. BTS took Best Selling Album for “ARIRANG,” Japan’s Novelbright received the Asia Cultural Exchange Special Award, AND2BLE and TUIDE were named IS Rising Stars, NouerA won IS Rookie, and FLARE U took Trend of the Year in the rookie category.
Artist Day was hosted by actress Nam Ji Hyun and RESCENE’s Woni, and it was the first of two nights at Gocheok Sky Dome, the first domed stadium in South Korea. The KGMA is still a young ceremony: it was created in 2024 by the daily newspaper Ilgan Sports, which is marking its 57th anniversary this year, and this third edition is the first to be held at the domed stadium in Seoul. The move into the capital was made to make the show easier to reach for fans in Korea and abroad, and the two-night program features 40 acts in total.
The show was broadcast live on ENA, with streaming also available on TikTok and Hulu, extending its reach well beyond the stadium. Outside the venue, the organizers set up a K-beauty festival experience space that drew creator teams from 39 countries, turning the area around the stadium into a festival in its own right.
No official statement from the organizers on the full voting breakdown was available at the time of reporting. The ceremony continues with Music Day on November 8, hosted by IVE’s Liz and actor Kim Jae Won, with ATEEZ, RIIZE, ITZY, TWS, WayV, NEXZ, KISS OF LIFE, Hearts2Hearts, KiiiKiii, KickFlip, AHOF, ALPHA DRIVE ONE, Billlie, TOUCHED, SHINee’s Minho, MONSTA X’s Shownu X Hyungwon, Choi Ye Na, ITZY’s Yuna, and Park Ji Hyun on the bill.
