BTS, who are gearing up to release a new album next month, plan to skip the Billboard Music Awards this year due to their busy schedule. This comes despite the K-pop group making history by earning the most nominations by a K-pop group at the awards show. ARMY might not be able to watch a performance from the group at BBMA, but they’re still happy with it. Read also | BTS Reveals Proof’s Debut Single Title and Cover; ARMY solves the mystery of seven years ago: “The HYYH era is back”
BTS members RM, Suga, V, Jin, Jimin, J-Hope and Jungkook were in Las Vegas last month for their four-day Permission to Dance on Stage concert. However, they have decided not to return to the city this month for the BBMA on May 15.
According to Allkpop, this is because the group is currently focusing on their new album Proof, which is due out on June 10. They will not attend any awards show until then and will deliver their acceptance speech with video if they win.
Fans of the K-pop group, collectively known as ARMY, supported their decision and also said they were even happy about it. In BTS’ latest interview with Billboard, ARMY was indirectly accused of manipulating the charts in their favor by mass buying their songs. This came after their English song Butter, released in May 2021, became the longest running number 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart after dominating it for 10 weeks.
In response, RM had defended ARMY and suggested it was up to Billboard to change the rules and base the rankings on streaming. Billboard then changed the rules for their digital sales, making it harder for fans to buy and support their favorite artists’ music, further angering ARMY.
BTS fans are still furious with Billboard for this. One wrote on Twitter, “Honestly so glad to hear they’ve decided not to attend this year. Their comeback is way bigger than the BBMAs anyway,” while another commented, “I’m pretty glad they’re not here…BB won’t have the influence he wanted…but my second character is thinking about the performance we would have gotten.” A third wrote, “I support their decision. Literally after what BB continues to do, they don’t deserve BTS at all.”
In 2017, BTS became the first K-pop group to be nominated for and win a Billboard Award, and have won an award every year since then. This year, the group was nominated seven times in six categories for their songs Butter and Permission To Dance at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards.
They were nominated in the categories Top Duo/Group, Top Song Sales Artist, Top Billboard Global (Excl. US) Artist, Top Selling Song (in which they were nominated twice), Top Billboard Global (Excl. US) Song and Top Rock Song (which they shared with Coldplay for “My Universe”). This is the highest number of nominations received by a group or duo in a year.
