(Photo courtesy of the VMAs)

 

[Hanteo News = Reporter JUNG JUNHWA] BTS won “Song of the Year,” considered one of the top prizes, at the MTV Video Music Awards, one of the three major popular music awards ceremonies in the U.S.

 

At the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards, held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on the 27th local time, BTS won “Song of the Year” and “Best K-POP” with “SWIM,” the title track of its 5th full-length album ‘ARIRANG,’ and added “Best Group” to become a triple crown winner.

 

It was a complete victory, with the group winning all three categories in which it was nominated. Looking at both the records and the context, there is more than one point worth noting about this win.

 

The first is the “Song of the Year” category itself. It is classified as one of the VMAs’ top awards alongside Video of the Year and Artist of the Year, and this marks the first time a K-POP group has won the trophy in this category. BTS became the first Korean artist to be nominated in this category with ‘Dynamite’ in 2021, but did not win at the time. Five years later, the result changed in the same category. When considering that last year’s winner in this category was ROSÉ with her collaboration with Bruno Mars, K-POP has now taken home a main VMA award for two consecutive years. The meaning differs in that one year came through a solo collaboration, and the next through a group on its own.

 

The second is the competitive field. This year’s nominees for “Song of the Year” included a collaboration between Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter, names such as RAYE and PinkPantheress, as well as ‘Golden,’ an insert song from the Netflix animation ‘KPop Demon Hunters.’ A song from content based on K-POP and a song by an actual K-POP team competed in the same category, and ultimately, the real-life team took home the trophy. It was a scene that showed the current market, where K-POP is being consumed both as subject matter and as a genre.

 

The third is the record. BTS had won “Best Group” for four consecutive years from 2019 to 2022, and this year marks its fifth win in the category. The group rewrote its own record for the most wins in the category. It is also worth noting that this achievement came in the first year after all members completed their military service and resumed full-group activities in March. The fact that a team returned after a three-year-and-nine-month hiatus and maintained the same position it held before the break shows how little the fandom’s solidarity was affected by time.

 

The fourth is the numbers that supported the win. ‘ARIRANG,’ released in March, recorded initial chodong sales of around 4.16 million copies according to Hanteo Chart’s tally. It sold 3.98 million copies on the first day alone and also topped the U.S. Billboard 200. The title track ‘SWIM’ entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 1, while all 14 tracks on the album filled the upper ranks of the Spotify Global chart. This is the basis for saying that the awards results cannot be explained solely by the voting power of a specific fandom.

 

On the other hand, there is still a view that, because the VMAs determine many categories through fan voting, this win was more the result of mobilization than musical evaluation. The two interpretations do not actually conflict. What this result points to is that objective indicators such as chart performance and sales, and the scale of a fandom capable of moving votes, were headed in the same direction.

 

The fifth is that the winners were not present at the venue. BTS was unable to attend the ceremony due to its world tour schedule and shared its acceptance speech through the agency. The group said the win was even more meaningful because ‘ARIRANG’ is an album that feels like a new beginning for the team.

 

The sixth is the nominee list. The “Best K-POP” category also included BLACKPINK, CORTIS, KATSEYE, LE SSERAFIM, and LISA. CORTIS, which debuted in August last year, was nominated in three categories, including Best New Artist, Best Group, and Best K-POP, but did not win. The fact that the group became a nominee in three categories at a major U.S. awards ceremony just over a year after debut is unusual in itself, and this can be interpreted as showing that K-POP has gone beyond the achievements of a specific team and established itself as a category within awards ceremonies. LISA’s “Best Pop” win was the first for an Asian solo artist, and the second for an Asian artist after BTS in 2020.

 

In summary, this year’s VMAs were not simply news of one team’s wins. A K-POP group took home a main award for the first time, a K-POP artist stood in that position for the second consecutive year, and the nominee list expanded across multiple teams. The remaining question is sustainability. An awards ceremony trophy is a record of that year, but what creates the nominee list for the following year is ultimately new music and stages. BTS is continuing its world tour, and this win remains an interim record in that journey.

joonamana@hanteo.com