South Korean boy group BTS was named entertainer of the year by Time magazine yesterday, adding to a list of accolades the group garnered this year. Consisting of seven members and debuting in 2013, BTS has become one of the world’s most popular group thanks to its catchy dancey songs, army of adoring fans and positive non-controversial messages.
BTS was nominated for the first major Grammy Award for a K-pop band last month and in the summer, their English-language track Dynamite became the band’s first to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
“BTS isn’t just the biggest K-pop act on the charts. They’ve become the biggest band in the world — full stop,” Time writer Raisa Bruner wrote in a profile of the group yesterday.
“And they did it in a year defined by setbacks, one in which the world hit pause and everyone struggled to maintain their connections.”
According to Twitter, this week BTS “Continues to Reign as Most Tweeted About Musicians” in the United States for a fourth straight year.
BTS will perform later on Thursday in a television special when Time magazine’s Person of the Year will be announced.
BTS, also known as Bangtan Sonyeondan (Bangtan Boys) consists of seven members, RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook. Their ages range from 23 to 28 years old.
The boyband debuted under Big Hit Entertainment in Seoul in 2013. BTS is also a backronym for Beyond the Scene in July 2017. Each BTS member co-writes and co-produces their own music and their music style includes a wide range of genres.
BTS is the first and only Korean act as of 2019 to top the US Billboard 200 with their studio album Love Yourself: Tear (2018) and have since hit the top of the US charts with their albums Love Yourself: Answer (2018) and Map of the Soul: Persona (2019), making BTS the first group since The Beatles to earn three number one albums in less than a year.