The 2026 Melon Music Awards are expanding into a two-day event, and the first performer lineup is already bringing together some of K-pop’s fastest-rising names. ALPHA DRIVE ONE, LNGSHOT, NCT WISH, PLAVE and RIIZE have been confirmed to perform at the 18th Melon Music Awards, taking place November 14 and 15 at Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome.
The expanded ceremony will run under the theme “Connect” and the slogan “K-POP CONNECT: The New Pulse,” reflecting Melon’s plan to turn the annual awards show into a larger global music festival. The two-day format also introduces a new dimension to the event, with the Global-K Chart set to combine streaming and fandom-activity data from Melon, Tencent Music in China and LINE MUSIC in Japan for selected award categories.
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ALPHA DRIVE ONE arrives at the ceremony following a breakout first year. The seven-member WakeOne group debuted in January with Euphoria, a million-selling EP that established the rookie act as one of 2026’s notable new K-pop names. Its second mini-album, Unbreakable: 少年Beast, arrived in August with the title track “Born Dire,” which picked up multiple music-show wins and generated approximately 1.13 million first-week sales.
LNGSHOT will also make its mark on the MMA stage during a rapid first year under More Vision. The four-member group, Jay Park’s first boy group, debuted in January with Shot Callers and “Moonwalkin’,” followed by the trainee-era EP Training Day and a collaborative mixtape with Park.
NCT WISH enters the lineup after its strongest commercial year to date. The SM Entertainment subunit’s April full-length Ode to Love moved nearly 1.88 million copies in its first week, becoming the group’s third consecutive million-selling release. The group is now preparing its fourth mini-album, I SPY, due October 12, with teasers introducing the digital-world concept “Wish Land.”
PLAVE adds another dimension to the ceremony as one of K-pop’s most commercially successful virtual acts. The group’s fourth mini-album Caligo Pt.2 sold 1.25 million copies in its first week and debuted on the Billboard 200. This month, PLAVE launched its first world tour, KEEP IT MANIC, with two stadium shows at Incheon Munhak, while its September 3 collaboration “Flame” featuring milet expanded its activity into the Japanese market.
RIIZE, meanwhile, is heading into the awards after celebrating its third anniversary with two sold-out fan meetings in Incheon. The group released the EP II and “Do Your Dance” in June, earned a platinum certification in Japan for “Sunburst” and has already announced an October 26 prologue single ahead of its second studio album, scheduled for spring 2027.
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