BTS named artist of the year at 2021 American Music Awards

Beat rival nominees Ariana Grande, Drake, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd.

South Korean boy band BTS was named artist of the year at the American Music Awards show in Los Angeles on Sunday - the top prize at the world's largest fan-voted ceremony.

The K-Pop band beat rival nominees Ariana Grande, Drake, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd.

BTS were all over the American Music Awards on Sunday, performing with Coldplay on a raucous “My Universe” and taking home three big awards — artist of the year, favourite pop duo or group and favourite pop song for “Butter.”

“Seven boys from Korea, united by love of music, met the love and support from all the armies all over the world,” said RM. “This whole thing is a miracle. Seriously, we would never take this for granted.”

The show celebrated the best popular music for a second pandemic year with a mix of live and pre-taped performances. Silk Sonic’s Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak kicked off the awards on a funky, R&B and pre-taped note with their “Smokin Out the Window” and Jennifer Lopez pre-taped her “On My Way” from her upcoming romantic comedy “Marry Me.”

An earlier scheduled performance of “Butter” by BTS and Megan Thee Stallion was scrapped after the rapper cited personal reasons for dropping out Saturday. She turned out a big winner: named favourite female hip-hop artist, her “Good News” winning for favourite hip-hop album and her “Body” was crowned favourite trending song, a new award this year.

Olivia Rodrigo's bid to turn her album “Sour” into something very sweet was facing trouble. She entered the night as the leading nominee with seven nods but late into the show only could win new artist of the year. She lost favourite pop album to Taylor Swift's “evermore.” In a taped speech, Swift told her fans: “I’m so lucky to be in your life.”

Rodrigo performed her hit “traitor” live on a stage covered with flowers and Carrie Underwood and Jason Aldean brought a little country to the stage when they sang their pre-taped duet “If I Didn’t Love You.” With a little help from Julieta Venegas and Tainy, Bad Bunny performed their hit “Lo Siento BB :/.”

Among live performances, Italian band Måneskin made their US awards show debut with their viral hit “Beggin.’” Chlöe of Chloe x Halle floated down onto the stage to perform her hit debut single as a soloist “Have Mercy,” swinging her hair and twerking. Mickey Guyton got loud cheers while singing her patriotic song “All American” in a silvery dress, periodically screaming out “How y'all doing?”

The fan-voted awards show was airing live from Los Angeles on ABC. Nominees were based on streaming, album and digital sales, radio airplay and social activity, and reflect the time period of Sept. 25, 2020, through Sept. 23, 2021. Producers this year said they would be trying be highlighting everyone’s home town.

Becky G won for favourite female Latin artists and thanked the Latinx community. “You are not alone,” she said. “We are the American dream.”

Machine Gun Kelly grabbed the favourite rock artist award. “I want to accept this for all the aspiring musicians, the one who desires to play an instrument, wants to rap, wants to sing — not just the rock artists, but all the artists,” he said.