EXO, together with Lee Min Ho and Song Hye Kyo, have just been chosen as the most popular K-pop group and celebrities in the Korea's entertainment industry. This is thanks to the fans from around 139 countries that had voted for Korea's most popular celebrities.
According to Korea Portal, about 100 million votes were tallied by the 12th Annual Soompi Awards. This just shows that K-pop influence is on a continuous boom not only in Korea, but throughout the world.
One of the main highlights of the event was EXO beating the boy band, BTS, in terms of popularity rankings for the Best Male Group. It has been said that the group's hit songs, "Lotto", "Monster", "Lucky One" and "For Life", are some of the reasons why EXO had finally beat BTS in the category.
On the other hand, the girl group TWICE won the Best Female Group award, in turn, beating Girl's Generation. This was surely very surprising as it just shows that everything is possible, and that there is a shift of tides in the K-pop industry.
Meanwhile, Taeyon of Girls' Generation won the Best Female Solo award, making up for the loss of her group. Then there's Taemin of SHINee who took home the Best Male Solo award.
According to Digital Music News, to add up to the success of EXO, they also had won the Artist of the Year award, while BTS then again, only makes it to the runner up position. Looking at the bright side, BTS didn't go home with an empty hand as they had instead won the Album of the Year award, thanks to their second album entitled, "Wings".
The other reason as to why BTS had nailed the awarding events was due to the tens of millions of YouTube views that their music videos get. Currently, their music video for "Not Today" has just crossed the 40 million views mark.
