2025 Korea Grand Music Awards: When and where to watch, lineup, categories – all to know

The Korea Grand Music Awards (KGMA) ceremony is returning to celebrate the best of South Korean music for a second year this weekend. The two-day event is created by the same Korean newspaper Ilgan Sports that is behind the popular series Golden Disc Awards.

Beloved Korean actress Nam Ji Hyun (Good Partner) will be reprising her MC duties at the 2025 Korea Grand Music Awards with iM Bank. While she will be presiding over the show as the main host on both days, Red Velvet’s Irene and KISS OF LIFE’s Natty will be joining her on Friday and Saturday, respectively, at Incheon Inspire Arena.

The much-awaited extravaganza will feature fan-favourite celebs from across the K-drama and K-pop worlds. Popular actors like Byeon Woo Seok, Ahn Hyo Seop and Choi Sooyoung, who’ve amassed a global fanbase over the years, will be seen presenting glistening trophies to worthy musical stars over the course of the celebrations.

Daesang (Grand Prize) winners of last year’s ceremony, which also happened to be the inaugural Korea Grand Music Awards, were:

• Grand Artist: NewJeans
• Grand Performer: Day6
• Grand Record: (G)I-DLE (now i-dle)
• Grand Song: “Supernova” by aespa
• Grand Honor’s Choice: aespa, ATEEZ and ZEROBASEONE

When and where to watch Korea Grand Music Awards 2025?

2nd KGMA timings: This year’s KGMA event is set to be held over two days: Friday, November 14, i.e. ‘Artist Day,’ and Saturday, November 15 i.e. ‘Music Day.’ The Red Carpet segment will kick off at 5:30 pm KST (2 pm IST), and will be followed by the Main Ceremony, which is scheduled to take place from 6:30 to 10:30 pm KST (3 pm to 7 pm IST).

It will be globally live-streamed via TikTok. South Korean audiences may also rely on the TV network ENA for the domestic broadcast. However, the same doesn’t apply for the viewers in Japan and China. The former may tune into Hulu Japan for the broadcast.

2nd Korean Grand Music Awards lineup and presenters

Across a star-studded lineup of 32 teams, the show will be bedazzled by the talents of the following music acts:

• KGMA artist lineup

• KGMA presenters lineup

2025 Korea Grand Music Awards categories

Artists will be honoured throughout the two-day event. Here’s how each day’s schedule, according to categories set to be announced, will look like:

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