K-pop sensation BTS swept four awards at the 2021 Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night (local U.S. time), including top selling song for its megahit single “Dynamite”, the biggest achievement for the septet at the annual song festival.

During the live ceremony in Los Angeles, BTS was awarded Top Selling Song for English-language single “Dynamite,” beating out other superstars including Megan Thee Stallion’s “Savage” featuring Beyonce. In the pre-released list of winners, BTS was also named Top Duo/Group, Top Song Sales Artist, and Top Social Artist. The group won all four prizes it was nominated at the event, recording its biggest achievement.

It is the second time for BTS to take home the Top Duo/Group award after its first in 2019. The group competed with American legendary rock band AC/DC, indie pop trio AJR, and American country music duo Dan + Shay, and pop rock band Maroon5.

In the Top Song Sales Artist category, BTS beat out Justin Bieber, Megan Thee Stallion, Morgan Wallen, and The Weeknd. It was the first time for BTS to be nominated in the category.

The Korean boy band also won online-influenced Top Social Artist prize for the fifth year in a row since its first in 2017. Other contenders were K-pop bands Blackpink and Seventeen, pop star Ariana Grande, and Filipino boy band SB19.

The seven-member boy band thanked its global fan base Army for support. Its previous best record for the awards at the song event was in 2019 with two prizes.

“It’s really an honor to be a winner of such a significant title,” said RM virtually from Seoul, as he thanked fan group Army.

At the Billboard Music Awards, considered one of the top 3 American song awards along with American Music Awards and Grammy Awards, BTS performed its second English-language single “Butter” for the first time after its music video release last week.

The video has collected more than 100 million views as of 9:56 a.m. on Saturday in only 21 hours after its video release. It took 24 hours for its first English song “Dynamite” to reach that milestone.

The new digital single also racked up 11.04 million streams on the release day on global digital music platform Spotify, the most daily streams in its history. The previous record was 10.97 million streams set by “I Don’t Care” of Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber in 2019. The record is also higher than its previous single “Dynamite” with 7.78 million streams.

Shares of HYBE Co., formerly Big Hit Entertainment that is the agency behind the K-pop group, gained ground on Monday after the big night for BTS that won four prizes. HYBE shares closed the day 0.76 percent higher at 263,500 won ($233.79).

By Kang Young-woon and Lee Eun-joo

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]