BTS Becomes First K-Pop Group To Win At Billboard Music Awards

BTS is now the first K-Pop group to take home a trophy at the Billboard Music Awards!

The hit group attended the Billboard Music Awards at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on May 21, after being nominated for the year’s Top Social Artist award. BTS was up against Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Selena Gomez, and Shawn Mendes for the win, with Justin Bieber having previously taken home the fan-voted award every year since its introduction in 2011.

As soon as voting opened on May 1, BTS’s fans ARMY showed all their love and support for the group by voting via Twitter and online on the Billboard Music Awards website. The voting hashtag “#BTSBBMAS” has been used over 300 million times since voting began!

During the ceremony, it was announced that BTS won the Top Social Artist award. When the group took the stage, Rap Monster said, “We still cannot believe that we’re standing here on this stage at the Billboard Music Awards. It is so great to see all the artists we admire, and we feel honored to be in this category with such great artists right in front of us.”

He went on to thank all their fans around the world for their love and said their fans make them proud. “Please, ARMY, remember what we say: Love myself, love yourself,” he added. After thanking fans in Korean, he also thanked Billboard for their support.

BTS is the first group and second overall artist from Korea to win an award at the annual ceremony. Singer PSY was the first Korean artist to ever win at the Billboard Music Awards when he took home the Top Streaming Song award for “Gangnam Style” back in 2013, and PSY tweeted last month to congratulate BTS after their nomination was announced.

The award is well deserved considering that BTS has been killing it on Billboard’s Social 50 chart, having topped the chart for a whopping 25 weeks since their first No. 1 last October. They became the K-Pop group with the highest-ranking album on the Billboard 200 last fall when they came in at No. 26 with their album “WINGS.” Their most recent title track “Spring Day” also reached No. 15 on the “Billboard Bubbling Under 100” chart (for songs ranking just below the Hot 100), which Billboard described as “unprecedented given K-pop’s history on Billboard’s singles chart.”

Watch BTS give their acceptance speech on stage:

.@BTS_twt accepts Top Social Artist presented by @ion360, thanks to you guys! 💕 #BBMAs pic.twitter.com/lZWEuYXp6I

— Billboard Music Awards (@BBMAs) May 22, 2017

Congratulations to BTS on the win!