BTS방탄소년단

BTS (방탄소년단, Bangtan Sonyeondan; also known as the Bangtan Boys) are a South Korean boy band of seven members: Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jung Kook. The group was formed in 2010 under Big Hit Entertainment.¹ That company's label business is now BigHit Music, an independent label under HYBE.² They released their debut single album, 2 Cool 4 Skool, on June 12, 2013, and played their first TV stage on Mnet's M Countdown the next day. The members co-write or co-produce much of their own music.¹

In 2018, Love Yourself: Tear made them the first South Korean act to top the US Billboard 200 albums chart. Their 2020 single "Dynamite" made them the first all-South Korean act to reach number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard Global 200, and "Swim", the lead single of their 2026 album Arirang, became their seventh US number-one single. According to the Circle Chart, South Korea's official music chart, BTS had sold more than 40 million albums as of 2023, the most of any act in Korean history. The IFPI, the global recording-industry body, named them its Global Recording Artist of the Year for both 2020 and 2021.¹

BTS also hold more daesang than any other act at both the MAMA Awards and the Melon Music Awards. A daesang (대상) is a grand prize, the top tier of a Korean awards show. They have 21 at the MAMA Awards³ and 13 at the Melon Music Awards⁴, and in 2019 they won all four daesang at both shows.¹³⁴ On YouTube, nine of the 25 most-viewed K-pop music videos are theirs, led by "Dynamite" at #5 with 2.15 billion views as of October 10, 2026.⁵

In June 2022 the group announced a pause in group activities so that the members could complete South Korea's mandatory military service. All seven had completed it by June 2025, and Arirang, their first group album in almost four years, followed on March 20, 2026.¹