ATEEZ Just Won Grand Record at KGMA 2026. Three Years, Three Grand Prizes, and the “BAD” Summer That Made It Inevitable

ATEEZ won Grand Record, the top prize for an album and its musical achievement, on Day 2 (“Music Day”) of the 2026 Korea Grand Music Awards (KGMA) on November 8, 2026, at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. They also took Best Music and Best Stage, finishing with three trophies, and became the only act to win a grand prize at every KGMA since the awards began in 2024 (Edaily; Ilgan Sports, Nov. 8, 2026). RIIZE took Grand Performer, and ITZY and KiiiKiii shared Grand Honors’ Choice. ATEEZ thanked ATINY first: “The road to this moment wasn’t always smooth, but we could stand here because of the fans who loved our stages and our music” (Edaily, Nov. 8, 2026).

I’ll be honest: as a fan, hearing ATEEZ called for a grand prize for the third year in a row gave me goosebumps. Eight years in, they’re still treating every stage like it’s the one that matters most, and tonight that showed.

“BAD,” the title track of GOLDEN HOUR : Part.5: 111.99 million views as of Nov. 8, 2026. Official KGMA award clips weren’t up on ENA’s, KGMA’s or Ilgan Sports’ channels at the time of writing, so here’s the song that defined their year.

What happened at Gocheok

• Three trophies. Grand Record, Best Music and Best Stage (Edaily, Nov. 8, 2026).
• What Grand Record means. KGMA gives it to the artist whose album and musical achievement stood out that year (Edaily). Ilgan Sports founded the awards in 2024 and hosts the show, which ENA aired live in Korea.
• A grand prize every year. 2024, 2025, 2026: ATEEZ have won one of KGMA’s grand prizes at all three ceremonies (Edaily, Nov. 8, 2026).
• The finale. They closed Music Day with a medley of “Drip,” “BAD” and “Adrenaline,” in grey suits that fans immediately tied to the “Northern Grand Duke” nickname from the “BAD” challenge (Ilgan Sports, Nov. 8, 2026).
• The promise. “Every stage has felt precious and desperate to us,” they said. “We want the seven years we promised to become good memories for ATINY. We still have so much to show you. This is just the beginning” (Ilgan Sports; Edaily, Nov. 8, 2026). The “seven years” is their unusually long contract renewal, a decision Seonghwa described as a way to give fans “certainty” about the road ahead (YTN, Oct. 11, 2026).

Also read: It Took RESCENE Two Years to Hit No. 1. This Time It Took Two Hours.

The year in numbers

When	What	The number
Feb. 6, 2026	13th mini album GOLDEN HOUR : Part.4, title track “Adrenaline”	5 straight weeks on the Billboard 200; “Adrenaline” No. 1 on Circle Chart’s monthly download chart (OSEN, Mar. 18, 2026)
June 2026	14th mini album GOLDEN HOUR : Part.5, title track “BAD”	Over 1.88 million first-week copies, a career high, and their third No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (Ilgan Sports, Nov. 8, 2026)
Sept. 13, 2026	“BAD” on SBS Inkigayo	No. 1 without a broadcast appearance, about three months after release (Sports Kyunghyang, Sept. 20, 2026)
Sept. 19, 2026	The Fact Music Awards	Icon of the Year, their eighth grand prize overall (Sports Kyunghyang, Sept. 20, 2026)
Oct. 23, 2026	Pre-release single “Drip”	Entered Billboard’s Global 200 (Ilgan Sports, Nov. 8, 2026)

That’s a lot for one year, and it came from a group that also spent the spring on the road with their IN YOUR FANTASY tour, which ran through Kuala Lumpur, Macau and Bangkok in March and April (OSEN, Mar. 18, 2026).

“Adrenaline,” the song that opened their 2026: 63.43 million views as of Nov. 8, 2026.

The challenge everyone did: “BAD” and the Northern Grand Duke

“BAD” turned into a challenge before it turned into a trophy. Its chorus choreography spread across social media alongside a meme of San as the “Northern Grand Duke” (bukbu daegong), the brooding duke archetype from Korean romance-fantasy web novels, and the challenge kept multiplying from there (Ilgan Sports, Nov. 8, 2026). It’s a little ridiculous and completely lovable: a group famous for intense performance found itself starring in the year’s coziest fandom joke, and leaned all the way in.

The song kept going long after promotions ended. It returned to No. 1 on Inkigayo in September, and it was still one of their most-played songs on Korean charts in the last week of October, even with “Drip” already out (Top Star News, Nov. 8, 2026).

“BAD” on The Kelly Clarkson Show: 29.61 million views as of Nov. 8, 2026, on ATEEZ’s own channel.

Why they’re so cool

Because they make every stage count. At Gocheok tonight they didn’t coast on a greatest-hits set. They built a three-song finale from the past ten months and performed it like a closing night. “We’ll take this award not just as recognition of what we’ve done, but as a sign to show you even better stages and music,” they said. “We’ll keep being cool, the ATEEZ way” (Edaily, Nov. 8, 2026).

And because they talk about the hard parts honestly. “The road wasn’t smooth,” they said on stage, then turned it straight into gratitude for the people who stayed (Edaily). “If these become good memories for you when things are hard, that reason alone will give us the strength to keep doing this,” they added (Ilgan Sports, Nov. 8, 2026). Eight years after debut, they still sound like a group that can’t believe they get to do this.

“Drip,” the pre-release single from their next album: 29.48 million views about two weeks after release, as of Nov. 8, 2026.

What’s next

ATEEZ release their 15th mini album, GOLDEN HOUR : Part.6, on November 13 at 2 p.m. KST, with the title track “UP” and five songs in total, including “Drip” (Top Star News, Nov. 8, 2026). In 2027 their world tour ZERO TO ALL, a reversal of their 2018 debut album’s title TREASURE EP.1 : All To Zero, starts in Incheon on January 22–24, moves to Tokyo’s Yoyogi National Gymnasium on February 2–3 and Kobe on February 13–14, then heads to Europe in April, North America in July and August, and South America in September (Top Star News, Nov. 8, 2026).

For yesterday’s Day 1 winners, see our story on Young K’s Grand Artist win.

Where to listen: GOLDEN HOUR : Part.5 and “Drip” are on Melon, Spotify and Apple Music, and the videos above are on the official ATEEZ and KQ ENTERTAINMENT YouTube channels (checked Nov. 8, 2026).

Three years, three grand prizes, and a new album in five days. Congratulations, ATEEZ. I’ll be counting down to “UP,” and to the night ZERO TO ALL opens in Incheon.

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Sources: Edaily (Nov. 8, 2026: KGMA Music Day round-up; ATEEZ Grand Record); Ilgan Sports (Nov. 8, 2026: “‘3관왕’ 에이티즈, 최고상 그랜드 레코드”; Music Day round-up; “‘배드’ 터진 에이티즈, 베스트 스테이지”); OSEN (Mar. 18, 2026); Sports Kyunghyang (Sept. 20, 2026); YTN (Oct. 11, 2026); Top Star News (Nov. 8, 2026). View counts as shown on YouTube, Nov. 8, 2026.

Featured photo: ATEEZ in a video invitation for the Asia Top Artist Festival, August 2026. Photo: K-POPIT 케이팝잇 (YouTube) via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized).