BTS Breaks Record At Billboard Music Awards 2022 - Hindustan Times

In 2017, BTS became the first K-pop group to be nominated for and winning a Billboard Award. The band has won an award every year since then. They won the Top Social Artist award for five years in a row since their first nomination in the category in 2017. They also won the Top Duo/Group award in 2019, 2021, and now 2022. This year, they also repeated their last year's wins in the Top Song Sales Artist and Top Selling Song categories, taking the total award tally to 12.

ARMY congratulated BTS on the historic win, declaring, "BTS paved the way." One wrote, "Congratulations for winning three awards, well deserved and much more. Seven Kings." Meanwhile, others applauded them for breaking a record set by Destiny's Child, which had Beyoncé, Kelly Rowland, and Michelle Williams as its members. The group had officially disbanded in 2006.

A fan wrote, "Destiny’s child! A group that Beyoncé was a part of! Do you see BTS’ impact?! Speak to them very nicely," while another commented, "Can I just state that BTS just surpassed a band in awards that has Beyoncé as one of its members?" Meanwhile, others wondered about a collaboration between BTS and Beyonce. One wrote, "So Beyonce X BTS?"

Despite BTS' historic win, ARMY still has not forgiven Billboard for questioning the success of the K-pop group. In BTS' last Billboard interview, the ARMY was indirectly accused of manipulating the charts in their favour by mass-buying their songs. This came after their English song Butter, released in May 2021, became the longest-ranking no 1 song on Billboard Hot 100 chart after topping it for 10 weeks.

ARMY continues to be upset about it, and also questioned Billboard about their decision to remove the Top Social Artist category without any explanations. The Billboard Music Award for Top Social Artist, introduced in 2011, is one of three fan-voted categories in the award show, based on major fan interactions, music streams, and social engagement, combined with the global online voting results. BTS won the award for five consecutive years, and could have matched Justin Bieber's record of six wins if they won in the category this year.

ARMY questioned Billboard's intentions behind this, with one writing, "This year would have been 4 wins if the Billboards weren't so threatened and decided to scrap Top Social Artist." Another asked, "So Top Social Artists award is eliminated from the category this year with unknown reason/official reason?" A third one wrote, "So obvious why BB canceled the Top Social Artist award."

Meanwhile, BTS is preparing to release its new album on June 10. The anthology album titled Proof consists of 15 tracks, including several old songs and a new song Run BTS. The lead track is titled Yet To Come.