BTS Wins Artist Of The Year At 2026 American Music Awards: Complete Winners List

BTS capped a triumphant comeback by winning Artist of the Year at the 52nd American Music Awards on Monday night (May 25), beating out a star‑studded field that included Bad Bunny, Bruno Mars, Harry Styles, Justin Bieber, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Morgan Wallen, Sabrina Carpenter and Taylor Swift in the fan‑voted category. A hiatus was no damper on fan love for BTS: the group won the Artist of the Year prize at the American Music Awards Monday night, scoring that fan‑voted honor for a second time, and for the first time since going on a hiatus for military service. The K‑Pop superstars first won in the category in 2021. 

Key Event Details

The show basically began and ended with the group as they provided the opening performance, which was pre‑taped at one of their Allegiant Stadium shows this past week. The group not only won Artist of the Year, they won in all categories they were nominated in this year.

BTS: A Perfect Night — Three Nominations, Three Wins

BTS was awarded Song of the Summer for their comeback single “Swim,” as well as the title of Best Male K‑pop Artist, securing trophies for all the categories they were nominated for this year. The Bangtan Boys also hit the stage for a thrilling performance of single “Hooligan,” which appeared on the group’s Billboard 200‑topping 2026 album, ARIRANG. ARIRANG debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 to earn the reunited crew its seventh chart‑topper in March with 641,000 equivalent album units earned, according to Luminate.

BTS Awards At The 2026 AMAs

These three awards bring their career tally of AMAs to 14. Among groups or duos, they are second only to Alabama. The country titans won 23 AMAs.

RM’s Acceptance Speech: “ARMYs, We Made It Once Again”

After each of the boys finished up an elongated dap‑up with Busta Rhymes, RM took to the mic to celebrate. “ARMYs, we made it once again. Thank you. It’s an honor to have this precious award,” he began. “Once again, after everybody’s done their military service.” RM continued: “Like the legendary Busta Rhymes said, it’s a fan‑voted award, so our biggest thanks and gratitude goes to the ARMYs all over the world.”

Taylor Swift’s Shocking 0‑For‑8 Night

But one artist had a notably off night — Taylor Swift, who led the nominations with eight nods but didn’t win any of them. Despite her disappointing showing this year, Swift remains the artist with the most AMAs in the show’s history — a whopping 40. Taylor Swift led the nominations this year with eight nods, but was completely shut‑out and didn’t go home with any awards for the second year in a row.

The Night’s Biggest Winners: Seven Acts Tied With Three Wins Each

There was no one big winner at the 2026 American Music Awards. Instead, seven acts tied for the lead with three awards each — Bruno Mars, BTS, Cardi B, KATSEYE, Sabrina Carpenter, HUNTR/X and Sombr. Winning two apiece were Bad Bunny, Ella Langley, Shakira, Tyla and Zara Larsson.

Multi‑Award Winners

Complete Winners List: 52nd American Music Awards

Top Four Categories

Pop

Hip‑Hop

R&B

Rock / Alternative

Country

Latin

K‑Pop

Dance / Electronic

Other Categories

Key Performances Of The Night

BTS members Jimin, Jung Kook, Jin, Suga, J‑Hope, RM and V made a splash at the 2026 American Music Awards May 25, singing “Hooligan” for their first performance at an award show in four years. Sombr won two televised awards and delivered an intense performance of “Homewrecker,” filled with flashing lights that ended with him getting caught in a rain storm. Other three‑time winners included KATSEYE, who delivered a dance‑heavy performance of their song “Pinky Up”; Bruno Mars; Cardi B; Sabrina Carpenter; and the singing voices of Huntrix.

BTS: AMA History Makers

BTS is one of just four repeat winners in the history of the Artist of the Year category. Swift leads all artists with seven awards in the category. BTS is tied with Justin Bieber and One Direction with two wins each. BTS is thus tied with 1D as the group with the most wins in the category.

Artist Of The Year — All‑Time Repeat Winners

Bieber won best male pop artist, which brings his career tally of AMA awards to 19. That puts him in a tie with the late Kenny Rogers for the second‑most wins among male artists. The late Michael Jackson leads among men, with 24 awards. This obviously makes Bieber the living male artist with the most AMA wins.

About The 2026 AMAs

Queen Latifah hosted the 52nd American Music Awards, which aired on CBS and streamed on Paramount+. The AMAs, the world’s largest fan‑voted award show, was created by legendary producer Dick Clark and first awarded in 1974. 1 The 52nd American Music Awards nominees are based on key fan interactions, including streaming, album and song sales, radio airplay and tour grosses. These measurements are tracked by Billboard and Luminate, and cover the data tracking eligibility period of March 21, 2025 through March 26, 2026.

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