Kpop acts have made an entry to the 2019 American Music Awards as BTS and EXO picked up their first nominations for the Favorite Social Artist category.
According to a report by All Kpop, BTS and EXO will go head to head with popular international artists like Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, and Shawn Mendes, who all have strong fanbases.
This is not the first time that BTS has been nominated for a similar award on U.S. soil. In 2017, BTS made history as the first Kpop act to win as Top Social Artist in the Billboard Music Awards, breaking the six-year winning streak of Justin Bieber at the time. RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, V, Jimin and Jungkook continued to dominate the category with the support of their global ARMY fandom with victories in 2018 and 2019.
Ever since they made their U.S. debut, BTS has continued to enjoy huge popularity among American fans. They already performed at MTV's Video Music Awards as well as picked up accolades from the music body. They also made their Grammy debut this year as presenters. It is expected that BTS will earn their first Grammy nomination soon.
The Guinness World Records also certified that BTS now holds the record for the fastest time to reach one million followers on TikTok. The collective powers of BTS members RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, V, Jimin, and Jungkook helped the group achieve the milestone in the span of only 3 hours and 31 minutes. BTS also holds the Guinness World Record for being the first Kpop act to reach No. 1 on the U.S. album chart with 2018's Love Yourself: Tear and 2019's Map of the Soul: Persona, Billboard reported.
On the other hand, EXO is no stranger to winning international awards as they recently picked up a victory in Brazil's BreakTudo Music Awards for Kpop Male Group. They were also nominated at the MTV VMAs this year for the Best Kpop category. EXO also picked up a nod from the 2019 Teen Choice Awards for Best International Artist where they battled it out with BTS, BLACKPINK, NCT, CNCO, and Little Mix.
While their label SM Entertainment has yet to make an official statement on EXO's activities, it is believed that the group will stage one final comeback before the end of 2019.
In an interview with Soompi, Kai confirmed that "there are plans for [EXO's comeback] within the year. EXO will be EXO, and SuperM will be SuperM."
Kai assured fans that even with Baekhyun and his participation with new idol group Super M, EXO's schedules and activities will not be affected since they will both work hard for the two groups.