BTS crowned ‘Artist Of The Year’ at American Music Awards
The K-pop stars beat the likes of Taylor Swift, Drake, and Ariana Grande to the prize
BTS were named Artist Of The Year at this year’s American Music Awards, beating Taylor Swift, Drake, Ariana Grande, Olivia Rodrigo and The Weeknd.
The prestigious prize was the K-pop stars‘ third award of the evening. They also took home the awards for Favorite Pop Duo or Group, and Favorite Pop Song for ‘Butter’.
The group’s name was being chanted by fans in the crowd at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles even before they were presented with the prize. They made history as the first Korean winners of Artist Of The Year, and the first non-American winners since One Direction in 2015.
Accepting the award, the band’s RM said: “I seriously forgot what I gotta say. Thank you AMAs. We’re truly honoured to be on this stage with such amazing, tremendous artists right over here. We’re so honoured.”
He continued: “Four years ago, we had given this first-time-ever TV live performance at this stage AMAs for ‘DNA’. We were so excited and nervous at the time. And it’s been a long and amazing ride since then, but nobody could have ever bet on the odds of us standing here receiving this award. Except for the ARMY.”
Adding that they would “never take this for granted,” he described his bandmates as “seven boys from Korea, united by a love for music, met the love and support from all the ARMY all over the world.”
Jungkook also said: “We just want to make people happy with our music. We believe that there’s a world to open in the beginning of our new chapter. We learned in the past two years that each and every moment is precious.”
Elsewhere at the ceremony, Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion won three prizes each. Olivia Rodrigo was named new artist of the year, while Lil Nas X, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift and Kanye West were also among the winners.
Megan had been due to join BTS for their performance of ‘Butter’ at the awards, but dropped out due to “an unexpected personal matter”. The boy band did however team up with Coldplay onstage, singing their collaboration ‘My Universe’.