(LIVE): Thursday afternoon in South Korea saw some of its most popular lineup of K-pop acts walk out on the 2025 K-World Dream Awards blue carpet at the Jamsil Indoor Stadium. Beloved artists like Stray Kids, IVE, LE SSERAFIM, BTOB, TOMORROW X TOGETHER (TXT), Kang Daniel, CRAVITY and more were on the official plan to take the biggest K-pop awards show by storm.
Originally launched in 2017 as the 1st Soribada Best K-Music Awards, the K-World Dream Awards celebrate the ceremony’s 9th year thanks to the August 21 extravaganza planned in Seoul. The blue carpet event kicked off at 4:30 pm KST or 1 pm IST, with the main show beginning at 6:30 pm KST or 3 pm IST. HelloLive granted the live streaming access to global audiences over a paid plan.
K-World Dream Awards winners and K-drama cameos revealed beforehand
Some big winners of the day were revealed quite ahead of the live broadcast. These included K-pop mainstays G-DRAGON, IU, DAY6 and BLACKPINK‘s Rose being named as the victors of the K-World Dream Best Music Award category.
Although the KWDA remains a K-pop award show, certain K-drama icons made their highly anticipated cameos as star presenters. With Lovely Runner star Byeon Woo Seok making headlines well ahead of the show even going live, fellow celebrities Kang You Seok, Go Bo Gyeol, Ryu Kyung Soo, Mun Ka Young, Shin Ji Yeon, Im Soo Hyang and Jung Yu Mi also gracefully took on their roles as award presenters this evening.
Here are all the winners of this year’s biggest K-pop music award show:
2025 K-World Dream Awards winners list
Best Digital Music Award (announced earlier): G-DRAGON, IU, DAY6 and BLACKPINK‘s Rose
Best Album (pre-announced): SEVENTEEN, NCT DREAM, ENHYPEN, aespa and PLAVE
Super Rookie Award: AHOF, KickFlip, Heart2Hearts, KiiiKiii
K-World Global Music Artist Award: TOMORROW X TOGETHER
Listener’s Choice: BTOB, Paul Kim
Best OST: HUNTRIX “Golden” (KPop Demon Hunters)
Best Band: LUCY, Xdinary Heroes
Female Solo Popularity Awards: IVE’s Jang Wonyoung
Male Solo Popularity Awards: Park Ji Hyun
Group Popularity Award: Stray Kids, UNIS
Best Performance: NCT WISH, CRAVITY, FIFTY FIFTY
Best Music Video: ILLIT, tripleS, YOUNG POSSE
K-World Dream Main Award (Bonsang): ILLIT, Xdinary Heroes, NCT WISH, IVE, Stray Kids, LE SSERAFIM, QWER, tripleS, TOMORROW X TOGETHER
K-World Class Award: TOMORROW X TOGETHER, LE SSERAFIM, Stray Kids, IVE
Journalist Pick Artist Award: LE SSERAFIM, NCT WISH
GirlGroup Best Artist Award: IVE
BoyGroup Best Artist: Stray Kids
Best All Rounder Musician: KANG DANIEL
Rookie Band: DRAGON PONY
New Vision: CLOSE YOUR EYES, NEW BEAT, FIFTY FIFTY
Best Producer: Starship’s Director Seo Hyun Joo
Best Trot Artist: Park Seo Jin, Park Ji Hyun
The results have been shared on the basis of the live show’s videos available on social media. This is an ongoing live broadcast. Winners will be updated as and where they are announced.