BTS beat Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Bad Bunny and Lady Gaga in the artist category, as well as Harry Styles, Tame Impala and PinkPantheress in the song category.<\/p>\n
While nominees at the AMAs are selected based on commercial performance, winners are decided entirely by public ballot, with votes cast through the AMA website and social media.<\/p>\n
That means these awards largely amount to a battle of the fan bases \u2013 and there is perhaps no fan base as zealous as the so-called BTS ARMY.<\/p>\n
Millions of acolytes around the world devotedly follow every move by band members Jung Kook, Jimin, V, Suga, RM, Jin and j-hope \u2013 pouring into stadiums, flooding radio stations with song requests and orchestrating online campaigns to generate traffic and increase rankings on streaming platforms.<\/p>\n
The official ARMY fan base \u2013 standing for Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth \u2013 is a decentralised group spanning dozens of countries, and has been widely credited as fuelling the group’s meteoric success.<\/p>\n
“Armys, we did it once again!” the band’s leader RM, 31, declared during their acceptance speech. “Since this is a fan-voted award, our biggest thanks and gratitude, as always, go to Armys all over the world.”<\/p>\n
Already the biggest K-pop group of all time, and one of the biggest music acts globally, BTS has only gained more momentum following its return in March with the release of their fifth studio album, Arirang. The band took a break in 2022 for the members’ mandatory military service. <\/p>\n