BTS at the 2026 MAMA Awards: Nominations, Voting and Everything ARMY Needs to Know

BTS is back among the nominees at the MAMA Awards this year, one of the most important award shows in the K-pop world. After their comeback with the album ARIRANG, the group is competing for some of the most prestigious awards, including Artist of the Year and Album of the Year. This year's ceremony will take place on November 20 and 21 in Osaka, Japan, and ARMY can already take part in the voting.

Which awards is BTS nominated for?

The nominations were announced on October 12, and BTS was nominated for five awards, plus one more category decided by the fans. The full list is in the table below.

The nominations for Artist of the Year and Album of the Year are especially interesting, two of the biggest awards of the night. The album ARIRANG marked BTS's big comeback, and now it has a chance to win one of the most prestigious honours in the Korean music industry.

How does the voting work?

Voting for the Fans' Choice categories takes place on the official Mnet Plus platform and on X. The first round ended on October 22, and the second runs from October 28 at 6:00 p.m. KST until November 8 at 11:59 p.m. KST.

The voting is split into two rounds. In the first, from October 12 to 22, a shortlist was chosen: in Fans' Choice Male and Fans' Choice Female, the 20 artists with the most votes in each moved on. BTS advanced to the second round, in which fans vote again among the artists who passed the qualifier. An additional vote for Fans' Choice of the Year will take place live during the ceremony on November 20.

How to vote for BTS on Mnet Plus

Voting on Mnet Plus requires the free app and a user account. Download the app from Google Play or the App Store, then sign up or log in with an existing account. If you register with an email address, you will need to confirm it through a message you'll receive. On the home screen find 2026 MAMA Awards and open the Fans' Choice voting, then choose BTS in the right category. In the second round you can also vote for Fans' Choice of the Year with VISA. Finally, follow the on-screen instructions and confirm your vote.

It's important to know that you can vote once a day per user account. In each category you can choose only one artist, and you can vote again the next day. The voting is open to the international audience, including ARMY outside South Korea and Japan, and you don't need a Weverse membership or a ticket to the ceremony to take part. The availability of the app and some features may differ by country, so check access directly in the app.

It's enough to vote on Mnet Plus, while X is an additional, less important option. You can also vote through X by posting with the correct BTS hashtag. You need an X account to take part, and your post must follow the rules of the current voting round. Before posting, make sure you check the exact hashtag for BTS and the other conditions, because votes that don't follow the rules may not be counted. The official instructions are available on the MAMA Awards profile on X and in the Mnet Plus app.

How much do ARMY's votes matter?

In the Fans' Choice categories the fans' votes play a key role: 90 percent of the result comes from the Mnet Plus platform and 10 percent from X, so every vote can contribute to the final ranking. Other awards don't depend directly on fan voting. For Artist of the Year, for example, the expert jury accounts for 40 percent of the result, streaming and downloads for 30 percent, and physical album sales for the remaining 30 percent, while only albums that have sold more than a million copies can compete for Album of the Year. That is why voting on Mnet Plus and X directly helps BTS in the Fans' Choice category, but it doesn't affect all of their nominations.

When and where to watch the ceremony

This year's ceremony takes place on November 20 and 21 at Kyocera Dome Osaka in Japan. It will be streamed live on Mnet Plus, and this year's edition has the theme A Music Interstellar. The organisers are also preparing additional events for K-pop fans as part of the MAMA FAN FESTA programme.

Will BTS perform?

Although BTS has several major nominations, it hasn't been confirmed that the members will attend the ceremony or perform on stage. The group is currently on the ARIRANG world tour, and they have concerts right around the ceremony: on November 19, 21 and 22 they play in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, so November 20 is their only free day. The organisers have already announced some of the performers, and BTS isn't among them so far.

There is still enough time before November 20 for new announcements, so their participation isn't completely ruled out. Whether or not they appear in Osaka, over those two nights BTS could add a few more important awards to their rich collection.