AAA 2026 Popularity Vote Opens Sept. 4 — Full Candidate List Across 6 Categories

Voting opens September 4 across three stages

The Asia Artist Awards 2026 popularity vote launched September 4, running across three separate stages before the ceremony on December 5–6 at National Stadium Kaohsiung in Taiwan.

Six categories are in play: male actor, female actor, male group, female group, male solo, and female solo. Each stage uses a different app. Preliminary results carry 30% weight into the final tally, with the remaining 70% coming from the final voting round.

The schedule:

• Pre-vote (STARPOLL app): Sept. 4, 3:01 PM – Sept. 11, 3:00 PM; top 40 per category advance
• Preliminary vote (IDOLCHAMP app): Sept. 16, 10:00 AM – Oct. 6, 11:59 PM; top 20 per category advance
• Final vote (IDOLCHAMP app): Oct. 8, 10:00 AM – Nov. 4, 11:59 PM; winner = 30% preliminary + 70% final

Each category winner receives an AAA 2026 Popularity Award trophy.

Who's on the ballot

The actor categories are stacked. Male actor nominees: Byun Woo-seok, Kim Soo-hyun, Do Kyung-soo (EXO's D.O.), Park Bo-gum, Jung Hae-in, Cha Eun-woo, Lee Junho, Lim Si-wan, Song Kang, Seo Kang-jun, Ahn Hyo-seop, and Ji Chang-wook. Female actor nominees are Kim Hye-yoon, Kim Ji-won, Park Eun-bin, Im Yoon-ah, IU, Suzy, Park Bo-young, Kim Go-eun, Ko Yoon-jung, and Han So-hee.

On the music side, male groups include BTS, Seventeen, Stray Kids, ENHYPEN, Tomorrow X Together, RIIZE, ZEROBASEONE, BOYNEXTDOOR, TWS, PLAVE, NCT DREAM, and ATEEZ. Female groups: TWICE, BLACKPINK, aespa, IVE, LE SSERAFIM, ILLIT, BABYMONSTER, Kiss of Life, (G)I-DLE, ITZY, and QWER.

Male solo is crowded. Im Young-woong, G-Dragon, Baekhyun, Taemin, Kang Daniel, Young Tak, Lee Chan-won, and Jung Dong-won are in. So are all seven BTS members — Jin, Jimin, Jungkook, V, j-hope, RM, and SUGA — competing individually. Female solo nominees are IU, Taeyeon, Jennie, Rosé, Lisa, Jisoo, Nayeon, Winter, Karina, Hwasa, Chungha, Kwon Eun-bi, and Lee Young-ji.

BTS showing up in both the group and solo categories simultaneously is very much a thing that is happening.