23 Groups Including ATEEZ, Lee Chan-won, and Forestella Gather for Grand Opening of “HMA 2025”

“The 33rd Hanteo Music Awards 2025” (HMA 2025), the event that summarizes K-pop in 2025, kicked off at 6 p.m. on the 15th at the KSPO Dome in Olympic Park, Songpa-gu, Seoul. Designed as a “K-pop festival” spanning generations and genres rather than a simple award show during the holiday season, it has drawn intense interest from domestic music fans. HMA 2025 is recognized as the most authoritative awards ceremony, hosted by Hanteo Global, which operates Hanteo Chart—the world’s only real-time music chart. Winners are selected based on a combination of album sales figures, music streaming metrics, global fan votes, and expert judging scores, making every year’s ceremony highly anticipated regarding who will receive the trophies. This year’s event has generated high expectations among K-pop fans thanks to an unprecedented lineup that transcends genres and generations. A total of 23 diverse artists took the stage, including ATEEZ, PENTAGON, Forestella, Kyuhyun, Kim Hee-jae, NowUs, LUCY, Park Ji-hyun, Billlie, Son Tae-jin, xikers, Artemis, Identity, 8TURN, WEi, WING, Lee Young-ji, Lee Chan-won, Lee Chang-seop, Yoon Jong-shin, tripleS, Hearts2Hearts, and Hwang Ga-ram. The list of presenters was equally impressive. Unlike other award shows, HMA has maintained its credibility by featuring only musicians on stage, and this time it continued that tradition with legendary Korean singer Kim Chang-wan leading the lineup. Other presenters included representatives from various genres such as Brian, Pepper Tone, Riya Kim, Han Hae, Kim Seol-hyun, Imi Ju, Kwak Beom, Jung I-rang, Nam Chang-hee, Kani, Jung Ji-so, Kim Pro, and Yu Baek-hap. Notably, the ceremony was hosted by trot singer Lee Chan-won and former Girls' Generation soloist Tiffany Young as main hosts, who are praised for their generation-spanning, empathetic hosting style that enhanced the audience’s engagement.