A year counted out in numbers — KM Chart Awards 2026
TOMORROW X TOGETHER took Artist of the Year. The four grand prizes went to four different acts.
In three lines
- KM Chart Awards 2026 (KMA 2026) was held on July 25 at Korea University's Hwajeong Gymnasium in Seoul.
- The four grand prizes went one each to TOMORROW X TOGETHER, BTS, Hwasa and CORTIS.
- TOMORROW X TOGETHER took five awards in total, two of them decided purely by fan voting.
Four grand prizes, four acts
KM Chart Awards decides its winners from a year of KM Chart data. Which means the results show, fairly clearly, where the year's numbers piled up.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Artist of the Year | TOMORROW X TOGETHER |
| Album of the Year | BTS 'ARIRANG' |
| Song of the Year | Hwasa 'Good Goodbye' |
| Record of the Year | CORTIS 'GREENGREEN' |
What stands out this year is that the four grand prizes didn't gather around one act — they went one each to four. The act that sold albums, the act that left a song behind, and the act that carried the year all ended up standing in different places.
The two seats fan voting decided
TOMORROW X TOGETHER took five awards this time. Two of them came from categories decided entirely by fan voting. The prize the data picks and the prize people pick met at the same act.
In the fan-voted categories, Best Popular Male Group went to TOMORROW X TOGETHER, Best Popular Female Group to UNIS, Best Popular Solo Male to TOMORROW X TOGETHER's YEONJUN, and Best Popular Solo Female to aespa's WINTER. In the group categories, P1Harmony and Hearts2Hearts took Best Male Group and Best Female Group, and the New Artist Award went to LNGSHOT and ALPHA DRIVE ONE.
Twelve acts on one line
Twelve names made the 'Ultimate 12', the ceremony's main prize: BTS, Hwasa, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, P1Harmony, ZEROBASEONE, RIIZE, NCT WISH, KickFlip, Hearts2Hearts, ALLDAY PROJECT, CORTIS and ALPHA DRIVE ONE.
What catches the eye is how far apart their debut years are. Acts that have lasted a long time and acts that only just started ended up inside the same year's data.
What's left after the numbers
Awards numbers are, in the end, only one way of summarising a year. The album that sold most and the song that lasts longest are often different, and a song that won nothing can fill somebody's whole year.
So today, instead of the results table, try playing Hwasa's 'Good Goodbye' — Song of the Year — one more time. Once you've watched the music video too, shot like a short film with actor Park Jeong-min, why this song made it across a year explains itself faster than any table can.
That's the last of the numbers. Now, the music.
KM차트어워즈시상식투모로우바이투게더방탄소년단화사코르티스
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Sources
- 1.[Soompi] Winners Of The KM Chart Awards (KMA) 2026 ↗
- 2.[HWASA (YouTube)] 화사 (HWASA) - 'Good Goodbye' MV ↗
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