![\"IVE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/7d9c6928-b20a-48e9-8159-0f8b5c41bc86.jpg\")
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IVE enters the stage at Suwon World Cup Stadium in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, July 30. Korea Times file <\/p>\n
The Melon Music Awards (MMA) is turning up the volume for its 18th edition, bringing 26 K-pop acts to Seoul for a two-night celebration of chart-topping hits, reunions and rising stars in November.<\/p>\n
MMA2026 will take place Nov. 14 and 15 at Gocheok Sky Dome, with KakaoBank serving as title sponsor, Melon announced Wednesday, completing a lineup that spans established groups and emerging performers.<\/p>\n
The final 11 additions include I.O.I, aespa, IVE, Dragon Pony, KiiiKiii, CORTIS, IDID, hrtz.wav, AEN, TUIDE and HANA, joining 15 acts announced earlier.<\/p>\n
The first night, Nov. 14, will feature 14 acts, including I.O.I, returning to the stage after a reunion that comes about nine years after the group’s previous activities, alongside aespa and Japanese girl group HANA.<\/p>\n
Other performers scheduled for the opening night include NCT DREAM, ATEEZ, YENA, RIIZE, TWS, RESCENE, Hearts2Hearts, Dragon Pony, IDID, AEN and TUIDE.<\/p>\n
The second night, Nov. 15, will feature 12 acts, including IVE, KiiiKiii, CORTIS and hrtz.wav, alongside NCT 127, PLAVE, 82MAJOR, NCT WISH, ILLIT, ALPHA DRIVE ONE, LNGSHOT and AND2BLE.<\/p>\n
Organizers said this year’s event will center on the theme \u201cK-POP CONNECT: The New Pulse,\u201d highlighting music’s ability to bring fans around the world together.<\/p>\n
The awards will also introduce a Global Top 10 category linked to Global-K Chart, an integrated China, Japan and Korea music index launched by Melon, Tencent Music and Line Music, expanding international fans’ influence on the awards.<\/p>\n
Fans can also enter the \u201cCatch the Timing\u201d promotion through Nov. 4 for a chance to win 224 invitations to MMA2026, along with prizes including laptops, vacuum cleaners and department store gift certificates.<\/p>\n
The event is expected to fill Gocheok Sky Dome across both nights, underscoring the growing scale of K-pop’s year-end award season.<\/p>\n
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IVE enters the stage at Suwon World Cup Stadium in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, July 30. Korea Times file…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-630007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}