2017 Billboard Music Awards: BTS, First K-Pop Group To Receive Trophy

Korean pop (K-Pop) group BTS makes history at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards, as the first K-pop group to receive a trophy. The group won the Top Social Artist Award, pitting them against the likes of Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes and Selena Gomez.

According to Soompi, BTS members attended the awards ceremony on May 21, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The award is given to the artist with the most number of fan votes via Twitter and the Billboard Music Awards website.

BTS Is Top Social Artist With Over 300 Million Votes!

BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a seven-member boy group from Seoul, formed in 2013. Since then, the group has millions of followers on social media. According to Hollywood Life, they are the most retweeted artist in 2016.

With this huge following, it is no wonder that the voting hashtag #BTSBBMAS was reportedly used over 300 million times. Soompi reports that since voting opened on May 1, BTS got the most number of votes.

The group, through its fans collectively called the BTS ARMY, beat other international artists such as Justin Bieber, who took home the award last year.

First K-Pop Group, 2nd Korean Act After PSY

Speaking at the awards ceremony, one BTS member Rap Monster expressed how honored they were to receive the award. They also did not forget to thank their fans who helped them get it, as well as Billboard for the recognition.

While BTS is the first K-Pop group to receive a Billboard Music award, they are the 2nd Korean act so far. Singer PSY was the first Korean to ever receive an award from Billboard for his hit Gangnam Style.

The award comes as no surprise as the group has been topping Billboard’s Social 50 chart for the past 25 weeks. Soompi also reports that their album WINGS is ranked 26 on the Billboard 200 last fall, making them the K-Pop group with the highest ranking so far.