BTS will make their red carpet debut at the Billboard Music Awards on May 21 in Las Vegas as Big Hit Entertainment confirmed that the Bangtan Boys will be attending the prestigious awards ceremony. This means that Rap Monster, Jimin, Jin, Jungkook, J Hope, Suga, and V will be standing alongside the who's who in the music scene for the first time.
The confirmation of BTS' attendance came from no less than Billboard, which nominated BTS for the category of Top Social Artist in this year's awards show. The boys earned their nomination because of their strong influence in various social media platforms and their current performance on the Billboard Top 50 chart.
According to Billboard, BTS was chosen as a nominee for the category after proving themselves on the same level as superstars Justin Bieber, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, who holds the highest number of weeks on the Billboard charts. At 23 weeks on the charts, BTS has already surpassed Miley Cyrus and Rihanna's 21-week record and smashed One Direction's 8-week stay on the charts.
BTS has their work cut out for them however since they are pitted against artists with some of the strongest fandoms like Justin Bieber whose Beliebers have propelled him on top of the Billboard charts for 161 weeks, Ariana Grande's Arianators, Selena Gomez and her Selenators and Shawn Mendez's Mendez Army. BTS, with its legion of ARMY is proving that they will stop at nothing but a win for the Top Social Artist category.
ARMY, the official BTS fandom has propelled BTS' last two videos "Spring Day" and "Not Today" along with Rap Monster's collaboration with rapper Wale "Change," to a total of over 100 million views, is using their strength to achieve a similar feat in the Billboard Music Awards. As soon as the voting opened on May 1, BBMA servers collapsed due to the influx of votes for BTS' hashtag as ARMYs collectively pooled in 20 million votes in the span of just 18 hours.
For his part, Big Hit Entertainment CEO Bang Shi Hyuk said to Soompi that while the label is overwhelmed by the amount that BTS is getting around the world, they will always make sure that the group sticks true to its core. "Due to the fact that BTS is growing at such a fast rate, I have many concerns for the future. However, the top priority for the group is producing better music so they can bring greater joy to fans all over the world," he said.
