K-pop band BTS beats 4-Oscar winning filmmaker Bong Joon-ho to emerge as top entertainer of year 2020

BTS looks all set to continue its supremacy in the year 2021 also as it stands nominated for Grammy, when the world will tune in on January 31 to the awards ceremony.

ACN Correspondent On Dec 29, 2020

SEOUL: The Korean pop band BTS – also known as Bangtan Boys beat the 4-Oscar winning Korean film director Bong Joon-ho of the PARASITE movie fame, and other Korean bigwigs to win the “Korean who shined in the world in 2020” award.

Korea.net, the official culture and information website of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Republic of Korea (ROK) that conducted the survey recently named BTS as the “Korean who shined in the world in 2020”.

It disclosed that BTS gained the most votes for this honor out of four nominees based on the number of articles the site produced during this year.

The other three nominees were most revered Korean film producer/director Bong Joon-ho who bagged four Oscars in 2020 for his movie PARASITE, Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency Commissioner Jung Eun-Kyeong, and Minister for Trade Yoo Myung-hee.

The 92nd Academy Awards for movie PARASITE certainly seemed like the Bong Joon Ho show in the year 2020, when the revered South Korean filmmaker won the Oscars for best picture (as producer), director, original screenplay, and international feature.

Bong Joon Ho was expected to give a tough fight to BTS in the contest to win the “Korean who shined in the world in 2020” award but the latter’s back-to-back and serial accomplishments didn’t let it happen.

According to Korea.net, BTS changed the global landscape of pop music and catapulted K-pop to the mainstream of global pop culture.

BTS is a seven-member South Korean boy band that began formation in 2010 and debuted in 2013 under Big Hit Entertainment. The septet includes RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook, which has worldwide fandom with a huge number in India too.

The winning streak of BTS took off in early 2020 in February itself when the group’s fourth regular album “Map of the Soul: 7” sold more than four million copies and topped the world’s leading album charts.

The Korean band BTS did not stop here.

“In August, the group’s “Dynamite,” a song with lyrics in English, made history as the first Korean song to top the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The hit was No.1 for three consecutive weeks and remains among the world’s top songs at year’s end. BTS’s latest album “Be” released last month topped the Billboard 200, the main album chart. Its title track “Life Goes On” also became the first song in Korean to top the Hot 100 in Billboard’s 62-year history,” wrote Korea.net.

On December 10, the world-famous American Time magazine honoured BTS as “Entertainer of the Year”.

The magazine wrote, “BTS isn’t just the biggest K-pop act on the charts. They’ve become the biggest band in the world. Between releasing multiple albums, breaking every type of record, and appearing in these extemporaneous live streams in 2020, BTS ascended to the zenith of pop stardom.”

While quoting Kim Minji, an English-language staff writer and announcer at Korea.net, the state-owned Korean website wrote, “BTS continues to break records not only at home but also in the global market, and I’m proud that the group stands shoulder to shoulder with globally popular singers.”

“BTS’s record-setting parade has contributed to boosting Korea’s standing in the world.”

In the year 2020, BTS achieved yet another feat and emerged as the first Korean act to receive a Grammy nomination.

BTS rose to the social cause too:

On September 23, the BTS members shot a video and extended a message of hope to the future generations struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic around the world. The video was played on the sidelines of the 75^th UN General Assembly United Nations Assembly in New York.

No other Korean individual or group pushed the soft power of Korea and spread the word about Korea and Hallyu than BTS.

BTS also donated USD 1 million to the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S. and joined campaigns against racial discrimination and violence, Korea.net wrote.