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BTS poses for a photo at the Billboard Music Awards on Monday, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (provided by Big Hit Music)

The group BTS gave further proof of its impact on the mainstream pop market by racking up a record four wins at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards.

In a pre-awards ceremony Sunday, BTS captured three trophies for top duo/group, top song sales artist and top social artist. It went on to capture a fourth for top selling song at the main ceremony, held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

BTS won four awards at the Billboard Music Awards on Monday. (provided by Big Hit Music)

The Billboard Music Awards are considered one of the top three popular music award ceremonies in the US, alongside the Grammy Awards and American Music Awards. Selections are based on Billboard chart performance, with this year’s event reflecting the charts between March 21, 2020, and April 3, 2021.

With four wins, BTS broke their own record after scoring two wins at the ceremony in 2019. Their first-ever victories in the top selling song and top song sales artist categories were impacted by the chart performance of their song “Dynamite,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart after its release last year.

The top duo/group award was BTS’ second after a previous win in 2019. The group has won the top social artist award — which reflects social media influence — for five straight years since 2017.

BTS performs their latest single “Butter” at the Billboard Music Awards on Monday at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Big Hit Music)

In a reaction broadcast via remote after the group’s top selling song win, leader RM said, “We wanted to share some fresh energy with everyone through ‘Dynamite,’ and we think this award is proof that we achieved that goal.”

Music critic Kim Young-dae, who provided commentary for a broadcast of the event in South Korea, told the Hankyoreh, “Billboard selects its winners based on chart figures, so the wins in four categories offer numerical proof of BTS’ popularity.”

“You could really see the way they are being recognized in the mainstream pop market from the fact that they were introduced at the ceremony naturally, without them having to add a description like ‘K-Pop stars,’” Kim added.

BTS also provided a debut performance of their recently released single “Butter” at the ceremony. While it was a satellite broadcast of a performance pre-recorded in Seoul, it gave the effect of the BTS members being right there on the stage for the event.

BTS performs their latest single “Butter” at the Billboard Music Awards on Monday at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Big Hit Music)

The performance captured the process from the BTS members appearing ordinary as they waited in their waiting area before transforming into stars as they took the red carpet and stage. The atmosphere intensified with the expanding space, reaching its peak in the second half of the song with a dazzling awards ceremony performance.

Within 21 hours of its release Friday, the “Butter” video had been viewed over 100 million times on YouTube — around three hours faster than the 24 hours taken by “Dynamite” to reach 100 million views.

The song has also been lighting up music charts in Korea and elsewhere. It has hit number one on the iTunes top song charts in 101 countries, in addition to the major Korean record charts.

By Jung Hyuk-june, staff reporter

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