Organisers CJ ENM have unveiled the full scope of this year’s MAMA Awards, which for the first time will feature additional offline and online events and multi-discipline collaborations.

The MAMA Awards is heralded as K-pop’s biggest awards ceremony. Held annually towards the end of November, the ceremony sees some of the leading acts receiving notorious accolades and performing across the globe. It has previously been held in Seoul, Macau, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Los Angeles, and various cities in Japan.

The 2026 edition of the MAMA Awards will take place on November 20 and 21 at the Kyocera Dome Osaka in Japan with the theme “A Music Interstellar." Yoon Shin-hye, head of CJ ENM's music channel Mnet, described the concept as one that lets "audiences freely swim between stars within a 'music interstellar' that transcends time, space, imagination and reality, encountering unexpected excitement and the dazzling power of music."

Nominations for each award have been revealed on social media, as have the full artist lineups for each date. At present, that lineup consists of: ALLDAY PROJECT, ALPHA DRIVE ONE, BABY MONSTER, CL, ENHYPEN, Hearts2Hearts, ILLIT, INI, LNGSHOT, MODYSSEY, NCT WISH, PANIC, RESCENE, Street World Fighter : Directors’ War, TREASURE, BIGBANG, CORTIS, HWASA, IVE, izna, KiiKii, KO1KEYZ, LE SSERAFIM, NAYEON (TWICE), WOODZ, ZEROBASEONE, and &TEAM.

For the first time, however, the event will extend far beyond those two ceremonies. At a press conference held in Seoul on October 29, it was revealed that alongside the traditional MAMA Awards there will be a hybrid offline and online event titled “MAMA FAN FESTA” taking place from November 9 to 21. Offline events will stretch across Osaka, including at the Kyocera Dome Osaka, Midosuji Street and Namba Square, and a launch film and event website are set to release on November 2 with further details. For global fans, a stamp rally will take place on the Mnet Plus app, again potentially with more details to come.

Alongside these events, multiple collaborations will be presented throughout the MAMA Awards ceremony itself. Contemporary art, film, and animation will be integrated into certain performances. ENHYPEN is set to showcase a cinematic stage based on the film Dune: Part Three, which is slated for release in December, and industry legends BIGBANG will present a stage in collaboration with popular Korean animated series Dooly the Little Dinosaur. Korean art master Lee Bae will also be involved in the event, with the intention of promoting hands-on craftsmanship.

Since its first iteration in 1999, the MAMA Awards has become one of the most well-known events within the K-pop industry. These changes capitalise on that notoriety, turning the event into a cultural phenomenon that holds up not only music but film, art and animation to a huge audience both domestically and internationally. Rather than fans remaining at arms length as voters and spectators, they can be directly involved in festivities throughout November, making the MAMA Awards a communal, interactive experience, and they can participate in boosting those multimedia branches personally.

Park Chan-wook, head of Mnet’s business division, stated that the festival was planned "to create a space where fans do not simply stop at watching the ceremony, but participate, share what they like, and build new relationships with other fans they meet for the first time."

Not only will these new features make the MAMA Awards more enjoyable for fans, but it will boost the event’s overall visibility. MAMA will remain at the forefront of industry, no longer just as an awards show, but as a large-scale, multi-discipline event – a title that, if all takes place successfully, will present new opportunities for bigger and better live music events from Mnet in the future.

The 2026 MAMA Awards will be livestreamed worldwide on the Mnet Plus app, on various regional broadcasts, and on YouTube.