DAY6’s Young K was the biggest winner on the opening night of the 2026 Korea Grand Music Awards, taking home the Grand Artist Daesang and four more trophies as Artist Day unfolded at Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome on Saturday, November 7.
Young K was announced as the Grand Artist winner toward the end of the first night of the ceremony, capping a haul of five trophies that also included Best Artist, Best Solo (Male), Best OST and the Most Popular Artist award. TREASURE claimed the night’s other headline Daesang, winning Grand Song, while RESCENE and AND2BLE shared the Grand Honor’s Choice Daesang.
The Best Artist category, one of the ceremony’s major honors, went to 15 acts: CORTIS, BTS, Stray Kids, BLACKPINK, ALLDAY PROJECT, CLOSE YOUR EYES, MEOVV, Xikers, TripleS, P1Harmony, LUCY, RESCENE, TREASURE, CRAVITY and Young K. BTS added a second win on the night, taking Best Selling Album for “ARIRANG,” while TREASURE also picked up Best Hip-Hop and LUCY won Best Band.
DAYOUNG was a double winner, named Style Icon and Best Solo (Female). CRAVITY took two awards of its own, Best Music Video and Best Stage (Male), while FIFTY FIFTY won Best Stage (Female) and IDID won Best Dance Performance. RESCENE’s strong night extended beyond the Daesang, with the group also winning the Berriz Global Fan’s Choice award and Best Memory.
The rest of the Artist Day winners included YUSHI of NCT WISH, who received the K-Wave Popularity Award; FLARE U, named Trend of the Year Rookie; NouerA, the IS Rookie winner; TUIDE and AND2BLE, who shared the IS Rising Star award; MADEIN, who took the Photogenic Award; Jang Min Ho, who won Best Trot Performance; Lee Josh, named Best Producer; and Japan’s Novelbright, honored with the Special For Asia Culture Exchange award.
Accepting his Best Artist trophy, Young K reflected on the scale of his songwriting career. “Before I knew it, I’d written 234 songs,” he said, adding that the recognition felt like a reward for that body of work. The line drew one of the warmest reactions of the night from the crowd at Gocheok Sky Dome.
The 2026 KGMA is the third edition of the awards, which were created in 2024 by the daily newspaper Ilgan Sports to propose a new model for Korea’s popular music scene. Ilgan Sports is marking its 57th anniversary this year, and this is the first edition of the ceremony to be held at Gocheok Sky Dome, Seoul’s first domed stadium. Winners are decided by a panel of judges, chart data from Hanteo, Genie, FLO and Bugs, and fan votes cast through the Kugung app.
Artist Day was hosted by actress Nam Ji-hyun and RESCENE’s Woni, with a lineup that included TREASURE, CRAVITY, P1Harmony, TripleS, FIFTY FIFTY, ALLDAY PROJECT, RESCENE, MEOVV, Xikers, CLOSE YOUR EYES, AND2BLE, IDID, DAYOUNG, LUCY, Novelbright and Jang Min Ho, among others. The show was broadcast live on ENA and streamed on TikTok and Hulu.
The ceremony continues on Sunday, November 8, with Music Day, hosted by IVE’s Liz and actor Kim Jae Won, when a second round of winners will be announced. ATEEZ, RIIZE, ITZY, TWS, WayV, NEXZ, KISS OF LIFE, Hearts2Hearts, KiiiKiii, KickFlip, AHOF, ALPHA DRIVE ONE, Billlie, TOUCHED, SHINee’s Minho and MONSTA X’s Shownu X Hyungwon are among the acts on the second night’s bill.
Outside the dome, the awards built a second event of their own. A global culture experience space called the KK-Beauty Festa was set up near Gocheok Sky Dome, where visitors could try skincare, makeup, hair and body products firsthand. More than 1,000 creator teams from 39 countries took part in the festival, sharing the atmosphere around the awards in real time. The idea behind the space is that interest in K-pop leads naturally to interest in K-beauty, turning the weekend into a destination for global fans as much as an awards ceremony.
