'2026 Kiwon World Dream Awards(K WORLD DREAM AWARDS)' popularity award voting is down to only the male group institutional sector, and fierce competition continues with results unpredictable until the end.
Wishing for the realization of an era of 20 million inbound tourists through K-pop and a leap to a K-culture powerhouse, '2026 Kiwon World Dream Awards' will be held on the 27th at KINTEX in Goyang, Gyeonggi.
According to the organizing committee, '2026 Kiwon World Dream Awards' has been conducting popularity award voting, which determines winners 100% by fan votes through the fandom platform PANDOR1 since the 13th of last month. After preliminaries, the top 30 teams in each institutional sector advanced to the finals, where fandoms are engaged in heated competition.
The popularity awards determine winners in four institutional sectors in total: female group, male group, female solo and male solo. With voting for the female solo, male solo and female group institutional sectors having closed in sequence through the 13th, winners in each institutional sector were decided after nail-biting contests in which rankings fluctuated until the last moment.
In the female solo institutional sector, Hearts2Hearts' Carmen, in the male solo institutional sector, Park Ji-hyun, and in the female group institutional sector, ILLIT each took first place to become the winners of the popularity awards.
Now fans' attention is focused on the male group institutional sector, where voting is being conducted last. Voting in that institutional sector closes today (the 14th) at 11:59 p.m.
As of 11 a.m. that day, ATEEZ is leading in first place but is locked in a tight race, tied in vote share with Stray Kids. In addition, NOP, RIIZE and AND2BLE are closely chasing the front, so fandom voting power is expected to determine the final result until the end.
After all popularity award winners are decided, the full-scale festival will unfold. This year's awards ceremony has confirmed lineups including ATEEZ, Pi One Harmony, RIIZE, &TEAM, KickFlip, Psycus, NAUZ, 82MAJOR, AmpersandOne, NOP, AlphadriveOne, IDIT, AND2BLE, as well as SeeYa, LE SSERAFIM, QWER, Miyao, ILLIT, Raceneu, Hearts2Hearts, KiiiKiii, J.B., Seong-ri, Evan, Park Ji-hyun, XLOVE, Hi-Fi Unicorn and others.
Broadcaster Jun Hyun-moo and comedian Jang Do-youn will lead the ceremony as MCs for the fourth consecutive year.
[Photo] Provided by each agency
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