Sam Smith, one of England’s most successful singer-songwriters, has named kawaii metal group BABYMETAL as a recent obsession during a guest appearance at the MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN 2026 Grand Ceremony, held on June 13th at TOYOTA ARENA TOKYO and streamed internationally on YouTube. BABYMETAL, formed in 2010, are now one of Japan’s most successful international acts.
Smith, the sole Western headline guest, was asked after a performance of ‘My Guy’ whether they listened to Japanese music, and replied that they loved it and had “become obsessed recently with BABYMETAL”.
The band were not nominated in any of the awards’ 78 categories. BABYMETAL had entered the running with seven entries, six of them in Best Cross-Border Collaboration Song, but came away without a nomination. As Smith spoke in Tokyo, the band were playing the Apex Stage at Download Festival as part of their BABYMETAL WORLD TOUR 2026. Their producer, KOBAMETAL, responded on his personal Instagram story, posting over footage of the Donington crowd during a performance of ‘Road to Resistance’: “Sam, sorry we couldn’t be there. We were in the UK”, and tagging both Smith and the awards.
The six cross-border entries were drawn from BABYMETAL’s 2025 album ‘METAL FORTH’, which features Tom Morello, Spiritbox, Bloodywood, Electric Callboy, Polyphia, Slaughter to Prevail, and Poppy. The album debuted at number nine on the Billboard 200, the band’s first US Top 10 entry and reported as the highest placing on that chart for an all-Japanese-fronted act, alongside a UK Top 20 placing and a number one on Japan’s Oricon Rock Chart. In May 2025 the band became the first Japanese act to headline London’s O2 Arena, and they have spent the past decade touring across Europe and North America.
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The result drew comments online, with some asking why an act with BABYMETAL’s overseas reach, alongside the likes of ONE OK ROCK, was absent from an awards show built around the stated aim of carrying Japanese music to the world. MUSIC AWARDS JAPAN, now in its second year, was established by Japan’s five major music industry bodies under the concept of connecting with the world and illuminating the future of music. The same international focus shaped the 2026 ceremony, which streamed worldwide on YouTube and featured its first Western guest performer in Smith, who duetted with Hikaru Utada on a 2024 version of ‘Stay With Me’ and has performed in Japan on three tours across their career.
Actor and Dogstar frontman Keanu Reeves recommended the band on the May 1st 2026 episode of the Naked Lunch podcast, telling hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild:
“You gotta check out BABYMETAL. BABYMETAL’s been around the a long time but it’s epic. Heavy metal, BABYMETAL. It’s so good.”
Reeves’s band Dogstar also appeared at Download Festival that weekend, playing the Opus Stage on the Sunday.
BABYMETAL
METAL FORTH
Release Date: 08/08/2025
Label: Capitol Records
Stream: Spotify | Apple Music
CD: Deluxe | Regular
