K-Pop · Story

ATEEZ, RIIZE and Im Young-woong Lead 2026 TMA's First Korea Show in 3 Years

The 2026 The Fact Music Awards returns to South Korea on September 19 after three years of overseas stops, with 17 acts performing in Busan. Im Young-woong, ATEEZ, RIIZE, and ILLIT headline the night.

By Min-Ji HanSeptember 16, 20262 min read
Share ↗
ATEEZ, RIIZE and Im Young-woong Lead 2026 TMA's First Korea Show in 3 Years
OMONAR

Im Young-woong has now surpassed 14.4 billion cumulative streams on Melon, and on September 19 he brings that catalog to the stage at Busan Asiad Main Stadium for the 2026 The Fact Music Awards (TMA). It's the kind of number that puts the scale of his domestic following into sharp relief, and his set will pair signature hits with at least one new song, framing the evening's opening argument: that generational reach and chart dominance can share a bill.

The ceremony marks the TMA's return to South Korea for the first time in three years, having made its previous stops in Osaka and Macau. Coming home to Busan rather than Seoul is a deliberate signal of scale: the Asiad Main Stadium holds a crowd that smaller indoor venues can't.

The full lineup

The confirmed roster of 17 acts spans enough of the K-pop spectrum to function almost as a genre survey. ATEEZ, RIIZE, ILLIT, NMIXX, TREASURE, Choi Ye-na, and RESCENE fill out the main lineup alongside Im Young-woong. RESCENE, the six-member girl group that debuted in late 2023, has been building momentum steadily, and an awards show slot of this size is a meaningful step up.

The night also makes room for a cluster of newer acts: 5th-generation boy group CORTIZ, along with IDIT, Alpha Drive One, and All Day Project. Four emerging teams at a show this profile suggests The Fact is actively betting on the next wave rather than just rewarding established names.

Actor Kim Su-hyun will attend as a presenter.

What to watch for

The Fact described the lineup as proof that "mainstream appeal spanning an era and the fluid sensibility of Gen Z" can coexist in one space, which is a fairly clean summary of what the bill actually looks like on paper. Im Young-woong's fanbase skews older and deeply loyal; ILLIT and RESCENE are pulling in the short-form and streaming-native crowd. Watching how the crowd energy shifts between those sets will be one of the more interesting reads of the night.

Tickets are available through YES24.

End of story. The omonar! Desk.

오모나! · The newsletter

Don’t hear it from the group chat.

Comebacks, castings and chaos, filed by the desk.

Subscribe Free

Weekly · Free · Leave whenever