BTS VMAs 2026: Song of the Year for "Swim," a K-pop First
BTS won all three MTV VMAs it was nominated for on Sunday. None of them aired.
The group took Song of the Year for "Swim," Best K-pop and Best Group at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Sept. 27, then let Big Hit Music answer for them. BTS did not attend; Yonhap reported scheduling conflicts. Forbes counted 23 awards handed out and six presented on stage. BTS's three sat among the 17 given away outside the CBS and MTV broadcast.
Song of the Year is the milestone. "Swim" beat "Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters, Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter's "Bring Your Love," Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas," Olivia Dean's "Man I Need," PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson's "Stateside," and RAYE's "Where Is My Husband!" BTS becomes the first K-pop group to win the category. The Korea Herald notes that the group was also the first Korean act nominated in it, with "Dynamite" in 2021, and did not win. Rosé took the trophy last year with Bruno Mars for "APT.," so it has now gone to K-pop two years running, first to a soloist and now to a group.
The other two wins pushed records. Best Group is fan-voted, and BTS beat BLACKPINK, CORTIS, FLO, Fuerza Regida, Geese, KATSEYE and Twenty One Pilots for a fifth trophy in the category, one more than the four it won in a row from 2019 to 2022. No other act has more. In Best K-pop, a six-act field that included BLACKPINK, CORTIS, KATSEYE and LE SSERAFIM, whose "Spaghetti" featured BTS's own j-hope, BTS won for the fourth time. It entered the night tied with one other act at three, and Billboard reports the win breaks that tie.
The statement Big Hit released on the members' behalf said "Arirang" felt like a new beginning for them, and that the awards carry more weight for it. "Swim" is the lead single from that album, released in March after a hiatus of nearly four years. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
On the broadcast itself, only Madonna won more than BTS. She took seven awards, including Artist of the Year. Taylor Swift also won three, closing the night with Video of the Year. BTS's three came with no acceptance speech and no red-carpet moment, which is unusual for a group that has spent the past six months filling stadiums.
The Arirang World Tour resumes Friday, Oct. 2, in Bogotá, with South American stops running through Oct. 31 in São Paulo.
