The 2026 edition of MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN (MAJ), one of the country’s premier international music honors, is set for June 13 next year.

The Grand Ceremony, including the red carpet and presentation of the major categories, will be held that evening at TOYOTA ARENA TOKYO, while the Premiere Ceremony, which covers additional categories, will take place earlier that day at TOKYO DREAM PARK. The MAJ week, running from June 8 to 13, will also include artist performances alongside seminars and showcases featuring music industry professionals from Japan and abroad.

At a press conference held in Tokyo on Wednesday (Nov. 5), organizers revealed mid-year standings based on data from January through August 2025, covering the current entry pool of eligible works and artists. Nominees for Artist of the Year include some of the year’s most prominent acts: timelesz, HANA, Gen Hoshino, Mrs. GREEN APPLE, and Kenshi Yonezu, among others. For New Artist of the Year, the list includes CANDY TUNE, CENT, TENBLANK, HANA, Brandy Senki, MON7A, and ONE OR EIGHT.

The Song of the Year field features many of the year’s defining releases, such as AiNA THE END’s “On the Way,” Sakanaction’s “Kaiju,” JENNIE’s “like JENNIE,” Snow Man’s “CHARISMAX,” and multiple tracks from HANA (“Burning Flower,” “Blue Jeans,” “ROSE”), BE:FIRST’s “Muchu,” and Mrs. GREEN APPLE (“KUSUSHIKI,” “Darling,” “Heaven”), as well as Kenshi Yonezu (“BOW AND ARROW,” “Plazma”).

Meanwhile, Album of the Year contenders include acclaimed works such as Southern All Stars’ THANK YOU SO MUCH, Snow Man’s THE BEST 2020 – 2025, Fujii Kaze’s Prema, BABYMETAL’s METAL FORTH, and Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s 10.

Eligible works include songs and albums whose full official versions were first released between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2025, either on public digital services or in physical form (with some category exceptions). Winners are determined through voting by members of the music community.

The award categories have been restructured since the inaugural MAJ with 14 new categories added. To reflect the diversity of Japan’s music landscape, new Dance & Vocal categories (Group/Solo) and separate Boys Idol Culture and Girls Idol Culture Song awards (Group/Solo) have been introduced. In response to the rise of long-running hits and renewed attention on catalog music, a Back Catalog category has also been created to honor works that continue to be embraced over time. In addition, with vinyl experiencing a resurgence, an Analog Record category has been established. The Largest Live Audience (International) award and Best Music Video Director award have also been newly added.

Founded under the theme of “Connecting the world, illuminating the future of music,” MAJ was established by five major organizations in Japan’s music industry. At the inaugural event held in May, music professionals voted — with some category exceptions — to determine winners across 62 categories (including six major awards) from a pool of approximately 3,000 entries.

Mrs. GREEN APPLE took Artist of the Year, Creepy Nuts won Song of the Year with “Bling-Bang-Bang-Born,” tuki. earned New Artist of the Year, Fujii Kaze won Album of the Year with LOVE ALL SERVE ALL, YOASOBI took Top Global Hit From Japan with “Idol” and aespa won Best Song Asia with “Supernova.” The ceremony at ROHM Theatre Kyoto was streamed worldwide on YouTube.

MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN 2026 – Event Overview

Ceremony Date: Saturday, June 13, 2026

MAJ Week: June 8 (Monday) – June 13 (Saturday), 2026

Venue: TOYOTA ARENA TOKYO, Tokyo

A ripped piece of paper floats in front of EJAE’s face as she giggles with her castmates Rei Ami and Audrey Nuna over a video call. “My manager gave me a list of adjectives to use,” she says over Zoom, unable to stop herself from cackling.

Nuna immediately smirks. “Read them for us,” she shouts. The catalog includes gems like “incredible,” “humble,” “privileged,” and “accomplished,” but all three women immediately lock onto the inclusion of “breathtaking” on this list. “‘Breathtaking’ is good,” Ami laughs.

They’re all accurate words to describe exactly how the three members of the semi-fictional girl group HUNTR/X feel on Friday (Nov. 7), considering that EJAE, Ami and Nuna have just earned four Grammy nominations for their work together on the breakout hit Netflix film KPop Demon Hunters.

Alongside two standard nominations related to music for film — “Golden” earned a nod for best song written for visual media while the movie’s soundtrack notched a nomination for best compilation soundtrack for visual media — HUNTR/X also received two major category nominations, for best pop duo/group performance, and for song of the year, both for “Golden.”

So yes, “breathtaking” feels like a good word to describe the trio’s feelings. “The breaths have been snatched from our bodies,” Nuna says. “Our hearts are being pulled in so many different directions. But above all, I think we’re just very, very, very grateful to be a part of what feels like a very cultural and historic moment, and something that as kids we would have we craved so bad to see. Being a part of it is just really surreal.”

The nominations are just the latest piece of what has been a cultural takeover for KPop Demon Hunters. Not only has the film become Netflix’s most-watched movie in the platform’s history, but the music from the soundtrack — written primarily by EJAE, Mark Sonnenblick and a host of other well-established K-pop songwriters — has dominated the charts. “Golden” spent a whopping eight weeks at the summit of the Hot 100 and remains steady at No. 2 this week. The entirety of the soundtrack, meanwhile, earned two weeks at the top of the Billboard 200, and remains at No. 2 today.

For EJAE, who spent the last decade writing hit songs for K-pop acts like aespa, Twice and others, earning a Grammy nod specifically for her songwriting in the song of the year category is a fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

“It means so much, because I [was asked] in an interview once, ‘What’s a goal that you have?’ And mine was to get an award as a songwriter,” she says. “I don’t see many Asian women or Korean women in this industry, it’s hard to find, songwriter-wise. And so I hope that this can inspire others to keep going, because it felt impossible.”

The group’s nominations don’t only make history as a film-music crossover — they also make history for K-pop as a genre. With their four nominations, HUNTR/X becomes the first K-pop girl group to earn Grammy nominations, and one of two acts (alongside ROSÉ of Blackpink) to earn nominations in the same year, another first for the genre. Previously, only BTS had scored major nominations at the annual ceremony.

That lack of representation in the past is part of why many in the industry have begun asking whether or not K-pop should be represented with its own categories at the annual ceremony. For their part, all three members of HUNTR/X agree that K-pop does deserve to have space created for it at the Grammys. “It’s been proven that this is a genre that can really stand its own in the U.S. space, so it would make sense for this genre to be represented alongside so many other genres that are important to culture,” Nuna says.

With a soundtrack that has dominated music spaces around the globe for the past four months, KPop Demon Hunters has repeatedly defied expectations — which is in no small part why Ami feels particularly proud to be representing her community at the biggest music awards in the world. “As Korean women, from a very young age, we are taught to be quiet, to not be seen,” she says. “That really causes some weird cognitive dissonance early on, as Korean women who we are pursuing the art self expression where we have to be seen. We have to be loud and bold.”

But the singer makes it abundantly clear that while she, EJAE and Nuna remain incredibly grateful for their success, all three of them worked incredibly hard to earn these four nominations. “[KPop Demon Hunters] took nine years to create, there were endless demos, we have a legendary songwriter who has gone through the work of the industry, we have Audrey Nuna out on her own being an independent artist, we have the struggle that comes with being a solo Asian artist in America,” she says, her voice slowly rising. “We’ve had every door shut. We’ve been told, ‘You’re not good enough. You need to do more. You’re too Korean. You’re not American enough.’ So we deserve this. We worked very hard for this, and we are honored to have earned it.”

Few artists have had as big a year as Sombr. The 20 year old New York native broke out in a big way in 2025, with two top 20 Billboard Hot 100 hits — “Back To Friends,” which peaked this week at No. 12, and “Undressed,” which reached No. 16 in October — and the release of his debut album, I Barely Know Her, which reached No. 10 on the Billboard 200 in September.

This week, things are getting even better: the singer/songwriter is set to make his debut on Saturday Night Live this weekend, and just today (Nov. 7) received a Grammy nomination in the coveted best new artist category. To add on to that, last night he finished the sold out North American leg of his first-ever headlining tour in his hometown, across 31 dates in which every single venue had to be upgraded to accommodate demand, with several cities adding dates as well. All told, according to UTA data, Sombr has sold more than 100,000 tickets across two dozen countries, including his first-ever sold-out arena show at the 3Arena in Dublin, with more shows in Australia and Europe to come later this year into next. And that victory earns UTA agent John “JT” Taylor the title of Billboard’s Executive of the Week.

Taylor, who is Sombr’s co-agent alongside UTA partner Matt Meyer, also has a long relationship with the Jonas Brothers, for whom he played guitar and served as musical director in their early days, before joining their management team at Philymack from 2014 to 2022. He is now their agent as well, as the group is in the midst of a tour that has sold 442,000 tickets and grossed $42.4 million from shows between Aug. 10 and Sept. 29, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. Here, Taylor discusses Sombr’s remarkable rise, the logistics of having to upgrade so many venues on a tour while an artist is blowing up and more. “I haven’t ever seen it this quickly, personally,” Taylor says of Sombr’s rise. “It’s indicative of the way artists are able to effectively engage and reach audiences far and wide through smart digital strategy and great partnership with DSPs and social media platforms.”

Sombr broke out in a big way this year with two top 10 Hot 100 hits, and this week, he wrapped the North American leg of his Late Nights & Young Romance Tour, having sold out the entire run, according to UTA figures. How did you approach the booking and routing for someone who was actively making a name for themselves at the time, and what key decisions did you make to help make that happen?

To begin with, we are so fortunate to be working with a very special artist who is particularly attuned to his fan base. Shane’s fans are the most important thing in the world to him, so he has been incredibly focused on the fan experience throughout every step of this incredibly rapid growth trajectory. As for the strategy, we have an incredible IQ department at UTA that helped us as we determined our strongest markets and how to best estimate demand as we determined venue size. We worked with individual local promoters, who we are proud to have great relationships with, to ensure we could keep ticket prices accessible, the venues open to all ages, and to make sure we had Shane playing in iconic places that his fans would be excited about. 

As things continued to explode for Shane online, on the airwaves and beyond, it became evident that the rooms we had initially booked, which were the right rooms at the time, were simply too small. With the awareness we might leave too many fans unable to see a show, we pivoted quickly in real time to upgrade wherever we could.

Each venue on the North American tour was upgraded, and multiple dates were added in several cities. How do you make the call to do that and how difficult is it, logistically to pull off the switch, and overall to assess the correct venue size for an artist without much touring history?

Throughout this process, Shane has prioritized the fans and their experience. That mandate definitely brought with it some challenges, but was ultimately rewarding in the end. Shane wanted to upgrade wherever possible, but with the caveat that he didn’t want to change dates, didn’t want to refund tickets or cancel any of the shows. He was admirably adamant that we honor all of the original tickets sold at face value. This meant that our team — Matt Meyer, Jess Braunstein and myself — had to work with the promoters to find what larger rooms were available and able to accommodate those who already purchased tickets in the same seating configuration. We had to navigate this while renegotiating our current deals, all while considering the additional expenses associated with the larger rooms, and continuing to keep ticket prices fair and accessible throughout. We are very proud to say we were able to accomplish this in almost every market, which felt almost like a miracle once we had pulled it off.

He’s also performed in Europe and is about to go to Australia, with more European dates planned for next year, and has sold over 100,000 tickets across more than a dozen countries. How rare is that for an artist so relatively new, and how did you approach each territory? 

Some markets still really depend on the artist showing up and doing the leg work to build the audience, such as Japan, but even there Shane played Summer Sonic in August as his first-ever festival appearances and first time in the country, and already has amassed strong offers to return to a rapidly growing base. In Europe, we played a few headline shows in key markets, where the data was overwhelmingly convincing to test the waters. Shane was quick to alert us to the incredible numbers he was seeing in Ireland, for example. Again, we moved quickly and did everything we could to stay ahead of the explosive growth as we plotted out our 2026 headline run, which sold out clean on the on-sale, including highlights of three nights at Brixton in London and capping off with a show at the legendary 3Arena in Dublin.

How do you continue to grow an artist over the years into a real touring heavyweight?

By always prioritizing and supporting the artist’s vision and always putting the fan experience first. We are so fortunate to have an incredible team to support that vision with care and expert level strategy. We work closely across all departments at UTA to ensure we are not leaving any opportunity overlooked. Beyond the walls of our buildings, we have amazing partners at Warner Records, High Rise PR and of course with Shane’s team at The System — Andy Boose and Ann Perkins.

What’s next for Sombr?

SNL! His first ever Australian shows, the aforementioned headline European/U.K. run and some amazing festival looks in 2026.

After winning his first Grammy this year for best R&B song with SZA’s “Snooze,” Leon Thomas could sweep almost every R&B category at the 68th annual Grammy Awards, as the nominations were announced Friday morning (Nov. 7).

While the continued success of his Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit “Mutt” has proven Thomas is no underdog anymore, its “Live From NPR’s Tiny Desk” version is up for best R&B performance. (The original version was commercially released on Aug. 8, 2024, during the eligibility period for the 2025 Grammy Awards, and it was submitted for consideration then. Thomas released the 5-song Mutt (Live From NPR’s Tiny Desk) EP on Aug. 15, 2025, which qualifies for next year’s ceremony.) Its parent album, which shares the same title, is nominated for best R&B album, while its tracks “Vibes Don’t Lie” and “Yes It Is” are up for best traditional R&B performance and best R&B song, respectively.

Following Thomas, Durand Bernarr has the second most nominations in the R&B field with three: best traditional R&B performance (“Here We Are”), best R&B song (“Overqualified”) and best progressive R&B album (Bloom). He only scored his first Grammy nod ever this year in the best progressive R&B album category. “Folded,” arguably the biggest song of Kehlani’s career to date, has earned her her first Hot 100 top 10 hit and No. 1 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and Hot R&B Songs (charts dated Nov. 8), and now two Grammy nods for best R&B performance and best R&B song. While Kehlani has yet to win a Grammy, they’re poised to take home the gold for the first time next year.

“I’m not big [on letting] any award validate how great your art is. But it’s nice when the system in place or the hierarchy of what you’re doing in art recognizes that what you’re doing is great,” Kehlani told Billboard earlier this year while reflecting on her debut commercial mixtape You Should Be Here, which earned the star her first Grammy nod 10 years ago for best urban contemporary album.

Ledisi could snag her first best traditional R&B performance win in five years with “Love You Too,” the lead single from her 12th studio album The Crown, which is up for best R&B album. After the deluxe edition of 11:11 won best R&B album this year, Chris Brown returns to the best R&B performance field one year later with “It Depends,” featuring Bryson Tiller, which is also up for best R&B song. This week, “It Depends” rose to the No. 1 spot on R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and spends a fifth week atop Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay. And one week before Summer Walker’s third studio album Finally Over It drops, its lead single “Heart of a Woman” earns two nomination for best R&B performance and best R&B song.

Five years ago, Teyana Taylor called out the Recording Academy for the male-dominated best R&B album category after she dropped her third studio album The Album. “Y’all was better off just saying best MALE R&B ALBUM cause all I see is d–k in this category,” she wrote on X. Now, she’s up for her first Grammy ever in this female-dominated category, with Escape Room coming alongside Ledisi with The Crown and Coco Jones with her debut album Why Not More? Bilal’s first album in nine years, Adjust Brightness, earns the dynamic singer/songwriter/musician his first Grammy in 10 years for best progressive R&B album. After their “Peaches” collaboration with Daniel Caesar scored Justin Bieber and Giveon a hefty sum of nominations at the 2022 Grammy Awards, where both lost in every category they were up in, both could avenge themselves in the R&B field, as Bieber is up for best R&B performance (with “Yukon”) for the first time since “Peaches” and Giveon is up for best R&B album (for Beloved) for the first time since Take Time scored a nod in 2021.

U.K. R&B acts like kwn and Odeal have made a lot of noise from across the pond this year, but FLO is the only one nominated for a Grammy next year, as the girl group earns its first nod for best progressive R&B album with its debut album Access All Areas. And after five songs from SZA’s blockbuster 2022 album SOS earned Grammy nods at the 2024 awards ceremony, where SZA was the most-nominated artist with nine total nods, one more is added to her collection: “Crybaby,” from the deluxe Lana edition of SOS, is up for best traditional R&B performance.

While Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. welcomed The Weeknd back with open arms during the ceremony earlier this year, where he performed “Cry for Me” and “Timeless” with Playboi Carti, Grammy voters did not. His repeat shut out includes “Baptized in Fear” from his sixth studio album Hurry Up Tomorrow not being included in the best R&B song slate. Ravyn Lenae also surprisingly received zero nominations despite her R&B/pop crossover hit “Love Me Not” reaching No. 5 on the Hot 100 and, as Billboard’s awards editor Paul Grein put it, being “played on every pop radio station in America every hour on the hour during the voting period.” While “Love Me Not” competed in the pop field, “Love Is Blind” from the same Bird’s Eye album was submitted for best R&B song, and received no love.

Drake and PartyNextDoor’s “Somebody Loves Me” is nominated for best melodic rap performance, but its parent album $ome $exy $ongs 4 U isn’t up for best progressive R&B album as some might’ve expected. Mariah the Scientist’s breakthrough year isn’t captured by the 2026 nominations either, as “Burning Blue,” her first Hot 100 top 40 hit and first Rhythmic Airplay chart-topper, is looked over for both best R&B performance and best R&B song, and its parent album Hearts Sold Separately, her highest-charting Billboard 200 album (No. 11), isn’t up for best R&B album.

The 2026 Grammy Awards will be held on Sunday, Feb. 1 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, airing live on CBS and Paramount+ Premium at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

Numerous artists are currently flying high after scoring 2026 Grammy nominations on Friday (Nov. 7) –but there are also several major contenders who didn’t get quite as lucky.

Despite garnering major award buzz this past year, stars such as The Weeknd, Gracie Abrams and Alex Warren didn’t get recognized in certain categories, which were unveiled Friday morning in a livestream on the Grammy website. The absence of the artist born Abel Tesfaye from the nominations list was particularly noticeable, as he had just reconciled with the academy last year and dropped Billboard 200-topping album Hurry Up Tomorrow in February. But while Kendrick Lamar, Sabrina Carpenter and Bad Bunny got honors in the album of the year category, The Weeknd did not.

Both Abrams and Warren were also excluded from the major categories, with neither “That’s So True” nor “Ordinary” getting song or record of the year consideration, even though those were two of the biggest Billboard Hot 100-charting tracks of the year. Warren at least scored a nod for best new artist, but that category was also missing several big names, including Zach Top, Megan Moroney, Ella Langley and Ravyn Lenae.

The producer of the year, non classical category will turn heads for the second year in a row as well, as Jack Antonoff — who was notably excluded from the list in 2025 — once again did not make the cut. That comes in spite of his work on two album of theyear contenders, Lamar’s GNX and Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend, both of which spent time at No. 1 on the U.S. albums chart. Instead, Dan Auerbach, Cirkut, Dijon, Blake Mills and Sounwave will fight it out for the prize.

But while the academy’s word is final, it’s your turn to share how you feel about the outcome of the initial voting process this year. Have any strong feelings on which snubbed artist was the most deserving of recognition? We want to know.

Tell us who you think should have been nominated in a category they were shut out of by voting in the poll below.