CORTIS received the honor of winning at a U.S. music awards show for the first time since their debut.
CORTIS (Martin, James, Juhun, Sunghyun, Geonho) won the Best New Artist in K-pop institutional sector at the iHeart Radio Music Awards 2026 held in Los Angeles, U.S., on the 26th (local time).
The five members gave their acceptance remarks via video. They said, "We are very proud and truly grateful to receive this award. We will never forget it." They also thanked their fandom COER and said, "Thank you for supporting us from the start. Like our team name, COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES, we hope we can continue to move forward together, breaking away from standards and rules set by the world." Finally, they raised expectations for their new release, saying, "We want to share the music we will soon present with you as soon as possible. Please show a lot of interest in our next steps."
The iHeart Radio Music Awards is a music awards show hosted by U.S. online radio broadcaster iHeartRadio since 2014. It awards artists and songs that were the most played on iHeartRadio stations and applications over the year.
CORTIS attracted attention for impressive North American activities right after debut. They appeared on iHeartRadio Live in October last year, and in February this year they became the first K-pop act to headline the NBA Crossover concert series, an NBA music festival in the U.S.
Those local activities led to an expansion of listeners. The debut album COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES, released in September last year, surpassed 400 million cumulative streams on the global audio and music streaming platform Spotify in about six months (as of Feb. 26). The United States accounted for the largest share of listeners by country/region. According to Billboard's latest chart (March 28), the track "GO!" ranked 34th on pop airplay. It entered the chart that shows the songs with the most radio plays in the U.S. for four consecutive weeks. It proved an unusual long-running popularity six months after the song's release.
CORTIS earlier swept five rookie trophies at domestic music awards shows. They consecutively dominated the 2025 MAMA Awards, the 10th Asia Artist Awards 2025, the 40th Golden Disc Awards, the 2nd The Awards, and the 33rd Hanteo Music Awards 2025.
Having proven their presence as the best new artist, CORTIS has begun the countdown to the title track of their new release, which will be announced on April 20. According to the promotion calendar released on March 26, after the title track announcement they will hold a release party with fans offline and carry out music show activities. The mini album 2 GREENGREEN, set for official release on May 4, has already passed 500,000 pre-saves on Spotify, signaling early signs of global success.
[Photo] iHeart Radio Music Awards 2026
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