BTS has been named the 2020 TIME Entertainer of the Year.
“BTS isn’t just the biggest K-pop act on the charts,” wrote Raisa Bruner. “They’ve become the biggest band in the world – full stop.”
The K-pop group, which consists of Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook, released two Korean-language albums and one Japanese-language album this year and had a global smash with the English-language single “Dynamite.”
With their tour plans scrapped due to the pandemic, BTS staged a two-night livestream event that sold nearly a million tickets. Add to that a year-ending Grammy nomination (for “Dynamite”).
Speaking to TIME, J-Hope described 2020 as a “roller coaster” and RM summed the year up with “S**t happens.”
Jimin said 2020 “was a year that we struggled a lot. We might look like we’re doing well on the outside with the numbers, but we do go through a hard time ourselves.”
Last year, TIME named Lizzo its entertainer of the year.