The group CORTIS proved its sizzling global popularity by becoming a nominee at a U.S. music awards ceremony for the first time since its debut.
On the 8th (local time), according to the list of nominees released by the U.S. 2026 iHeartRadio Music Awards, CORTIS (Martin, James, Juhun, Sunghyun, Gunho) was nominated for Best New Artist (K-pop). In addition, the debut album's intro track "GO!" was named a nominee for Favorite TikTok Dance alongside music by Taylor Swift and Tate McRae. CORTIS is the only K-pop boy group included in that category.
The iHeartRadio Music Awards is a music awards show hosted by U.S. online radio broadcaster iHeartRadio since 2014. It selects the artists and songs most played across iHeartRadio stations and the application over the year. This year's ceremony will be broadcast on the U.S. TV channel FOX on Mar. 26.
This nomination stems from CORTIS's achievements in the global market. Their COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES entered the main U.S. Billboard album chart, the Billboard 200, at No. 15 (dated Sept. 27, 2025), marking the highest debut album rank among K-pop groups, excluding project teams. On global audio and music streaming platform Spotify, cumulative streams are on the verge of reaching 300 million just four months after release.
The nominated song "GO!" rose to the ranks of a global hit thanks to its success as a dance challenge. As of 10 a.m. on the 9th, videos on the global short-form video platform TikTok using this song's audio surpassed 210,000. That is an overwhelmingly high figure compared with songs released at the same time. On Spotify, as of the 2nd, it became the fastest K-pop boy group song released last year to reach 100 million streams. At overseas stadium events, fans sang along in unison at each awards ceremony, and the song was even used in promotional videos for the U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason, showing its widespread popularity.
CORTIS was chosen as the headliner for the NBA Crossover concert series to be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Feb. 12. They are the first K-pop artist to perform.
[Photo] Provided by BigHit Music.
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