(Photo = Provided by BIGHIT MUSIC)

 

CORTIS took home their first Rookie of the Year award at a music awards ceremony since debut.

 

CORTIS won the ‘BEST NEW ARTIST’ award, which corresponds to the Rookie of the Year, on the first day of the ‘2025 MAMA AWARDS’ held on November 28–29 at Kai Tak Stadium in Hong Kong.

 

The five members shared, “It’s been just over 100 days since our debut, and it’s an honor to receive such a huge award. This is a once-in-a-lifetime Rookie of the Year award, which makes it all the more meaningful. First and foremost, we want to thank our ‘COER’ (fandom name). Our fans are our greatest strength. We will repay all the love with great performances and music.”
They added, “We would also like to express our deepest condolences to the victims of the recent fire. We hope our music and performances can provide comfort.”

 

On the second day of the awards, they performed a stage titled ‘MADE BY CORTIS.’ The intro track that echoed at the start was co-produced by leader MARTIN. The members brought out actual music equipment they use and delivered a live performance. The act recreated a scene of songwriting in the studio, followed by performances of ‘GO!’ and a metal rock rearrangement of ‘FaSHioN.’

 

With their win for Rookie of the Year at the ‘2025 MAMA AWARDS,’ CORTIS solidified their title as “the best rookie of the year.” Their debut album ‘COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES’ surpassed 1.06 million cumulative sales on the Circle Chart within just three months of release. It is the only debut album by a rookie artist this year to become a million-seller as a single album.

 

The album also made a splash on the charts. It debuted at No.15 on the Billboard 200 (chart dated September 27), marking the highest debut album ranking in Billboard history for a K-pop group excluding project-based teams.

 

Their streaming results were equally impressive. As of November 27, the debut album exceeded 200 million cumulative streams on global audio and music streaming platform Spotify, the fastest among all 2025 debut rookies to hit 200 million streams. In particular, the intro track ‘GO!’ received tremendous love, breaking into Melon’s daily, weekly, and monthly charts.