How to Vote for MAMA 2026 and MMA 2026: Dates, Platforms and Weights

At the Melon Music Awards (MMA), most prizes are scored 60% on Melon digital data, 20% by a panel and 20% by votes, so a fan vote is worth a fifth of the result. That covers the TOP10, Artist, Album and Song of the Year, New Artist and the Best Solo, Group, OST and POP awards. Record of the Year and all the Special Awards are decided 100% by the panel, so there is nothing to vote for.²

Three MMA awards lean on fan votes: TrackZero Choice (20% digital, 60% panel, 20% votes), Japan Favorite Artist by U-NEXT (50% panel, 50% votes) and KakaoBank Everyone's Star (20% panel, 80% votes).²

At the CJ ENM-run MAMA Awards, the public vote is for the Fans' Choice categories. The organiser lists Circle Chart (streams, downloads and album sales) and X (voting data) as the data sources for the show.¹

Fans' Choice nominees are picked with the help of "MAMA Super Fans", fans chosen from applicants on Mnet Plus.⁴ The nominees were announced in a broadcast at 6 PM KST on October 12 on Mnet, Mnet Smart+ and Mnet Plus, and first-round voting for Fans' Choice Male and Female opened right after.³ MAMA's own notice gives the first vote as 19:00 on October 12 to 23:59 on October 22 (KST) and names two platforms: Mnet Plus and X.¹

Soompi reports that Fans' Choice is decided 90% by Mnet Plus votes and 10% by X votes in both rounds, and that the top 20 male and top 20 female artists advance.⁶ The MAMA notice we could open does not state either figure.

The second vote runs from 18:00 on October 28 to 23:59 on November 8 (KST), again on Mnet Plus and X.¹ The published schedule leaves October 23 to 27 without a vote. Soompi's report puts the end of round 2 at November 18; the organiser's own notice says November 8, so go by that.¹⁶

The ceremony is on November 20 and 21 at Kyocera Dome Osaka. It streams worldwide on Mnet Plus.³ A fan festival, "MAMA FAN FESTA", runs from November 9 to 21 in Osaka and on Mnet Plus.³

MMA2026 is on November 14 and 15 at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul.² Its schedule lists TOP10 voting from October 15 to 29 and category voting from October 30 to November 13.² Kakao Entertainment said in June that pre-events such as "voting for the TOP10 awards" would run before the show.⁵

The MMA2026 page we could open does not say where the TOP10 and category votes are cast. It names the KakaoBank mobile app for Everyone's Star and U-NEXT, in Japan, for Japan Favorite Artist.² For the rest, use the page itself and the Melon app.

All the MAMA times are Korea Standard Time (KST), which is 9 hours ahead of UTC, so the round-2 opening at 18:00 KST on October 28 is 09:00 UTC that day, and the closing at 23:59 KST on November 8 is 14:59 UTC (DabPop's conversion).¹ The MMA page gives dates only.²

Use only the platforms the organisers name: Mnet Plus and X for MAMA, and for MMA, the MMA2026 page and the apps it lists. Fan accounts often post vote dates before the organiser does, so check them against the official notice (this is what happened with the round-2 end date).¹⁶

Neither organiser page we could open explains how to set up an account, how many votes a person gets or whether votes cost anything, so follow the instructions inside Mnet Plus and Melon. To watch the shows, see how to watch the 2026 K-pop award shows from abroad.⁷ For past winners, see the MAMA and Melon Music Awards archives.