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MTV VMAs 2021: ARMY furious as BTS lose 4 categories, says group 'was robbed'

BTS lost the titles for Song of the Year and Best Pop and more that has fans questioning the authenticity of MTV VMAs

With BTS asserting its dominance over the global music industry over the last few years, there is hardly anyone in the world who has not heard about the boyband that is breaking all records left and right. BTS has been dominating the charts as well as award shows due to their talent and their successful music but their music has resonated with fans so much so that BTS has one of the biggest fandoms in the world. Their spot in the international music scene has become tighter with their latest English hits, ‘Dynamite’, ‘Butter’ and ‘Permission to Dance’ as well as their lead Korean song like, ‘Life Goes On’ which were all at one time holders of the Number 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

Despite having broken so many records internationally as their YouTube videos get the most number of views in comparison to their contemporaries and their songs are played, purchased, and loved worldwide fans were quick to notice how BTS has been robbed at international award shows. As BTS bagged their second win for the night with ‘Butter’ winning Best K-pop Music Video of the Year at the 2021 MTV VMAs, fans started wondering why an All-English song was nominated under the Kpop category instead of being included in the Best Music Video category.

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BTS lost two big awards at the show

BTS was nominated for seven categories at the 2021 MTV VMAs but from the offset, fans knew something was wrong. BTS took the first award for the night as they won Group of the Year against another K-pop giant, Blackpink. After this, the awards for the Song of the Year and  Best Pop were announced. BTS’s song ‘Dynamite’ was nominated for the Song of the Year title while one of their most recent English single, ‘Butter’ was nominated for Best Pop.

The title for Song of the Year was won by Olivia Rodrigo for her hit single, ‘good 4 u’ while Justin Bieber won the award for Best Pop with his song ‘Peaches’ ft. Daniel Ceasar and Giveon. Both these awards were well deserved as both the songs were extremely positively received by fans but if numbers were to be questioned, BTS clearly stood out in comparison. Premiering on March 19 of 2021, the song ‘Peaches’ by Justin Bieber has 370+ million views on YouTube.

Not only in numbers but in sales BTS dominated other rivals

In comparison to that BTS’ ‘Butter’ that premiered merely three months ago, on May 21 of 2021 already has 540+ million views on YouTube. While Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘good 4 u’ got 250+ million views in three months since its release on YouTube while ‘Dynamite’ generated 750+ million views within three months of its release.

Not only in terms of view but, purchase records of BTS’ ‘Butter’ is way higher than its rival. ‘Butter’ by BTS sold 1,975,364 copies in the first week of its release. ‘Peaches’ on the other hand sold 16,000 units during its first week which amounts to a fraction of the sales by BTS. BTS’ ‘Dynamite’ sold 37,681 copies in the first week since its release while ‘good 4 u’ by Olivia Rodrigo sold 16,000 units worldwide. The sales, views, and charts number of BTS are extremely high in comparison to the other two which proves the claim that numbers don’t really bag artists a win in Western award shows.

BTS lost Best Choreography and Editing too

Not only at the categories where their sales dominated other nominees, BTS’ ‘Dynamite’ clearly was, in fans’ opinion the best-choreographed song as it had choreography unlike the winner in the category, Harry Styles’s ‘Treat People With Kindness’ Fans were furious at the audacious win Harry Styles took but now only that, BTS also list in a category where their music video stood out its rivals. Bruno Mars, Anderson Paak, and Silk Sonic’s ‘Leave the Door Open’ won the title for Best Editing while fans say BTS deserved the title. 

MTV Video Music Awards 2021 was held on September 12, 2021, at Barclays Center, New York City in front of a live audience. The 40th edition of the awards ceremony began at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT and was aired live on CTV.

Fans are furious at the show

BTS losing in these categories leave fans saying that they were robbed. One fan said, “Dynamite was on the charts for how many weeks in a row, but it didn't win song of the year? bts was robbed. DYNAMITE SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE WINNER.” Another fan said, “BTS was robbed JB won Best Pop.” One more fan said, “Bieber won best pop (song I think?) over taylor,ariana,bts,shawn mendes,billie I think, etc for PEACHES!! like everyone else was robbed. so confused how Justin won anything while up against BTS and taylor.” One more fan said, “Bullish!t this is ridiculous bc BTS not there @vmas y’all do this? His song is good but Butter was better we know BTS got the votes!”

Another fan replied when a Justin Bieber fan accused BTS fans of mass buying and charting, “What fanbase don’t mass buy pls wit that sh!t as far as JK being a fan so tf am I but in my opinion Butter was better and BTS got robbed!” One fan joked, “Yeah our boys were prevented from coming due Joonie birthday, and they made surprise change of rules 😂😂😂But all jokes aside BTS was robbed so much in this year that it would be funny if it wasn't sad.” One more fan said, “Vmas robbed bts. Olivia won song of the year and she didn't even charted that long. Mr.son he flew alll the way to ny for choreography but bts didn't win the choreography too. White privilege????? With theseeee many achievements butter still didn't win. Ahhh f@ck vmas.” One fan said, “Y'all r unfair for sure. You know damn well BTS deserved the best choreography ,video of the year and the best editing. Y'all made up this nominations just to console us but still show white supremacy.....RACISM.” One more fan said, “Everyone including Vmas knows BTS should hv won BUTTER BEST POP and DYNAMITE SOTY and also the BEST CHOREOGRAPHY and EDITING awards..VMAS SUCK!!!”