BTS named Time magazine’s Entertainer of the Year 2020
‘BTS ascended to the zenith of pop stardom’
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Your support makes all the difference.BTS is Time magazine’s Entertainer of the Year.
The K-pop act was announced on Thursday as the winner of this year’s title.
“BTS isn’t just the biggest K-pop act on the charts. They’ve become the biggest band in the world—full stop,” Time wrote.
“Between releasing multiple albums, breaking every type of record and appearing in these extemporaneous livestreams in 2020, BTS ascended to the zenith of pop stardom. And they did it in a year defined by setbacks, one in which the world hit pause and everyone struggled to maintain their connections.”
The announcement came ahead of Time’s reveal of its Person of the Year. The publication has also picked LeBron James as Athlete of the Year. Last year’s Entertainer of the Year award went to Lizzo.
Comprised of seven members – RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook, BTS originated in 2010, when Big Hit Entertainment founder Bang Si-hyuk recruited RM.
The band’s first album, Dark & Wild, came out in 2014, followed by Wings in 2016 and Love Yourself: Tear in 2018. BTS released two album in 2020: Map of the Soul: 7 in February, and Be in November.
BTS’s single “Dynamite”, released in August 2020, was a chart-topping hit in the US – the band’s first American number one hit. BTS thus became the first K-pop group to reach the top position in the US charts.
“Unlike their peers, BTS had an antiestablishment streak, both in their activism and in the way they contributed to their songwriting and production – which was then rare in K-pop, although that’s started to change,” Time noted.
“In BTS’s debut 2013 single, ‘No More Dream,’ they critiqued Korean social pressures, like the high expectations placed on schoolkids. They have been open about their own challenges with mental health and spoken publicly about their support for LGBTQ+ rights.”
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