When Are the K-pop Award Shows This Season?

This page stays at the same address and is updated whenever an award show announces new dates, venues or broadcast partners.

K-pop award shows are ceremonies, usually run by a broadcaster, a music platform or a media company, that hand out prizes for the year's music and fill the rest of the night with special stages you rarely see anywhere else. Most of them are packed into the last weeks of the year and the first weeks of the next, which is why fans call it award season. This season starts in Seoul in early November and ends in Hanoi in January, and the table below puts every major show on one line.

Confirmed so far: the dates and venues of KGMA, the Melon Music Awards, the MAMA AWARDS, the Asia Artist Awards and the Golden Disc Awards; the hosts of the Golden Disc Awards, singer Sung Si-kyung and actor Moon Ga-young; and the live streaming partners of KGMA, the Melon Music Awards and the MAMA AWARDS.

Not announced yet: the broadcast and streaming partners of the Asia Artist Awards; the performers and broadcast plan of the Golden Disc Awards; and the date, venue and lineup of the 36th Seoul Music Awards. The most recent Seoul Music Awards took place in June 2026 at Inspire Arena on Yeongjong Island near Incheon Airport, so the next edition is not expected in the winter window. We will add each item here as soon as the organizers confirm it.

Which Award Shows Take Place in Seoul?

Two of this season's big ceremonies are in Seoul, and they share a stage. Gocheok Sky Dome, the covered baseball stadium in the southwest of the city, hosts KGMA on the weekend of November 7 and 8 and the Melon Music Awards the following weekend, November 14 and 15. If you are planning a November trip around K-pop, these are the two shows you can reach on the subway: the nearest station is Guil on Line 1, a short walk from the dome.

KGMA is the younger of the two. This is its third edition, and it splits into two themed nights, Artist Day on Saturday and Music Day on Sunday, both starting at 5 p.m. KST. Tickets are sold through NOL, and arriving artists walk a red carpet that is designed as an in-person extra for people with tickets. Our KGMA guide lists who performs each night, and the KGMA winners page gathers the results award by award.

The Melon Music Awards, known as MMA, are run by Korea's largest music streaming platform, so the main TOP10 prize leans on streaming data, mixed with a judging panel and fan votes. The 18th edition runs over two nights from 6 p.m. KST, with a different lineup each evening. Tickets were sold through Melon to its subscribers, with a limit of two per account, so treat resale offers with caution. Our Melon Music Awards guide breaks the lineup down by night and explains how to get to the dome.

Seoul's December calendar is different. The broadcaster festivals, SBS Gayo Daejeon on December 24 and 25 at KINTEX and the KBS and MBC year-end stages, are festival broadcasts rather than award ceremonies, and their seats are handled in their own way. Our guide to K-pop concerts in Seoul in December explains how those tickets work.

Why Do Some Award Shows Travel Abroad?

The short answer is that K-pop's audience lives everywhere, and the organizers follow it. Three of this season's ceremonies are staged outside Korea, each in a city with a large and loyal fan base, and each turns the show into a two-day event that fans can travel to.

The MAMA AWARDS, run by CJ ENM, have moved around Asia for years. After Hong Kong last year, this edition comes to Kyocera Dome Osaka on Friday, November 20, from 6 p.m., and Saturday, November 21, from 3 p.m. Osaka shares Korea's time zone, so those times are the same in Seoul. Fan voting on Mnet Plus runs until November 18 at 11:59 p.m. KST. Our MAMA AWARDS guide has the full lineup for both nights, ticket details and the walk to the dome.

The Asia Artist Awards return to Kaohsiung National Stadium on Saturday, December 5 and Sunday, December 6. It is an open-air stadium, which gives the show a festival feel, and the ceremony honors actors as well as singers. Tickets are sold only on tixcraft. Our Asia Artist Awards guide lists who appears on each day.

The Golden Disc Awards are the longest-running of the major K-pop ceremonies, and the 41st edition is the first held in Vietnam: two days, January 9 and 10, 2027, on an outdoor stage at the Vietnam Exhibition Center in Hanoi, hosted again by Sung Si-kyung and Moon Ga-young. The performers have not been announced yet. The show traditionally honors both digital tracks and physical albums, which is why its nominations often look a little different from the streaming-led awards in November.

How Can You Watch Each Show Live?

Every major show streams live, but each one picks its own partners, and some streams are blocked in certain regions. The quickest rule: check the official partner listed below before the show day, and log in early, because the first minutes of a stream are when sign-ups fail.

If you are planning a trip rather than a night on the sofa, the calendar makes a neat route. A visitor arriving in early November can see KGMA and the Melon Music Awards on consecutive weekends in Seoul without changing hotels, then fly to Osaka for the MAMA AWARDS. December belongs to Kaohsiung and to Seoul's broadcaster festivals, and January to Hanoi. Fan votes for several of these shows close before the ceremonies, so if you want to vote, check each official app a week or two ahead.