Every November and December, the same question appears in Korean fan spaces: who won the daesang? The 대상 (daesang) is the grand prize at an awards show, and a whole season of ceremonies has grown up around it. The ceremonies are not one event. They are about half a dozen separate shows, run by different organisers, held in different cities, and counting different things.
We, the haeyo teachers, have made a calendar of the shows that fall between the end of 2025 and June 2026, as checked on 30 June 2026. Two warnings first. Organisers do not always publish how they score, so most percentages below come from fan-edited wikis, and we label them as such. And the three broadcasters' end-of-year shows are not awards at all.
The calendar
| Event | Date | Place | What we know |
|---|---|---|---|
| MAMA Awards | 28 and 29 Nov 2025 | Kai Tak Stadium, Hong Kong | Held abroad. Organiser announcement is official. |
| Melon Music Awards | 20 Dec 2025 | Gocheok Sky Dome, Seoul | Scoring from a wiki: see below. |
| Golden Disc Awards (40th) | 10 Jan 2026 | Taipei Dome, Taiwan | Reported as the first held in Taiwan. Scoring not found. |
| Hanteo Music Awards (33rd) | 15 Feb 2026 | KSPO DOME, Seoul | Scoring from a wiki, unconfirmed. |
| Seoul Music Awards (35th) | 20 Jun 2026 | Inspire Arena, Incheon | Scoring not found. |
| KBS year-end show | Dec 2025 (date and venue in conflict) | Not confirmed | Not an awards show. Reports give 19 and 30 Dec. |
| SBS year-end show | 25 Dec 2025 | Inspire Arena, Incheon | Not an awards show. Third year at this venue. |
| MBC year-end show | 31 Dec 2025 | MBC Dream Center, Ilsan | Not an awards show. |
Only the MAMA row has an official source. The other dates and venues are from our research notes. The Circle Chart Music Awards had no 2026 date that we could find, so we leave them out.
The KBS show is where the record is muddled. One report puts it on 19 December as a live broadcast and another on 30 December. The venue appears only on a blog. We treat both date and place as unresolved, and we have not tried to pick a winner between the two.
What an awards show actually counts
Almost all the real awards mix three things: sales and streaming data, a fan vote, and a panel of judges. Each show weights them differently, and the weights vary by prize. A top-level prize might lean on data, while a 'fans' choice' prize is nearly all vote. The three broadcasters' end-of-year shows, in contrast, give out nothing. They are stages: groups perform, often in special pairings, and there is nothing to win.
It helps to keep that line clear in conversation. If someone says a group 'won at the KBS festival', they are almost certainly mistaken or joking.
MAMA, Hong Kong, 28 and 29 November
MAMA is run by CJ ENM, which announced that the 2025 edition would take place at Kai Tak Stadium in Hong Kong on 28 and 29 November. According to a wiki, the 'Artist of the Year' prize mixes domestic music data, overseas data, album sales and a panel in a 20, 10, 30 and 40 split, though different wiki versions disagree. The 'Album of the Year' is reported as 60 percent albums and 40 percent judges, and the fans' choice prize is mostly votes on a fan app. The first public voting round is reported as 16 to 26 October and the second as 30 October to 10 November.
Melon, Golden Disc, Hanteo and Seoul Music Awards
The Melon Music Awards took place at Gocheok Sky Dome on 20 December. According to the wiki's table, the main prizes mix 60 percent digital data, 20 percent online voting and 20 percent judges, while the 'Millions Top 10' prize is 80 percent digital and 20 percent votes, and 'Record of the Year' is voting only.
The 40th Golden Disc Awards were held on 10 January 2026 at Taipei Dome, reported as the first time the show has left Korea for Taiwan. We found no scoring table. The 33rd Hanteo Music Awards followed on 15 February at KSPO DOME, with a wiki giving the main prize as 50 percent global Hanteo data, 20 percent global votes and 30 percent judges. We could not confirm that against the organiser.
The 35th Seoul Music Awards, on 20 June 2026 at Inspire Arena in Incheon, is the latest in our window. We found no scoring information for it.
Voting: where the public gets a say
Fan votes run through apps that belong to the organisers or the broadcasters. Mnet Plus for MAMA, Whosfan for Hanteo and similar apps for other shows are the ones named in our sources. We found only that overseas fans are heavily involved. We could not find consistent public rules on daily limits, device limits or whether a foreign account can vote, and these differ by notice. Before you spend time or money, read the current voting notice in the app itself.
The cautionary tale: Produce X 101
Votes are only as good as the counting. In 2019 viewers examined the final vote totals for the survival show Produce X 101 and noticed that the numbers for the top twenty places looked like multiples of one figure. The analysis spread online and led to an investigation. Producer Ahn Joon-young was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to forfeit about 37 million won, a sentence made final by the Supreme Court (case 2020do17078). Chief producer Kim Yong-bum received one year and eight months and left prison in July 2021. At the appeal stage, a list of harmed trainees from seasons one to four was made public. We did not find the date of the final ruling.
That case is not a reason to distrust every show. It is a reason to ask any show how it counts, and who checks.
If you want to be there
Ceremony tickets are mostly sold through fan clubs and ticket agents, and some travel companies sell packages. We cannot vouch for any package seller. Buy from the organiser's named agent, check the date against the organiser's page and keep in mind that the host city can change from one year to the next: Hong Kong, Taipei and Incheon all hosted a show in our window. Use our ticketing article for the booking steps and the touting law.
We also left out some things on purpose. There is no list of next season's nominees or dates here, because none was official by our checking date.