South Korean superstars BTS were crowned artist of the year at the American Music Awards, brushing aside challenges from Taylor Swift, Drake and The Weeknd as they took home a total of three major awards.
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"Seven boys from Korea, united by love for music, met the love and support from all the armies all over the world," said BTS' RM after the group won the artist of the year title.
"This whole thing is a miracle. Seriously, we would never take this for granted."
The band was also named favourite pop duo or group and got the favourite pop song award for "Butter."
Hosted by Cardi B, the show featured live and taped performances.
BTS closed the show with a performance of "Butter" and earlier joined Coldplay on stage for a rendition of their single "My Universe," marking a post-pandemic return to live performances for the K-pop band.
An earlier scheduled performance of "Butter" by BTS and Megan Thee Stallion was scrapped after the rapper cited personal reasons for dropping out. She turned out to be 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 came into the night with a leading seven nominations but only took home the crown for favourite new artist of the year.
Rodrigo 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." Swift also won for favourite female pop artist, giving her a career total of 34, the record for the most awarded artist in AMA history.
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."
Among live performances, Italian band Maneskin made their US awards show debut with their viral hit "Beggin."' Chloe 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.
The fan-voted awards show aired 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 September 25, 2020, to September 23, 2021.
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.
Earlier Sunday, in awards announced before the show, Swift was named favourite female pop artist, Ed Sheeran got the favourite male award and Doja Cat featuring SZA on "Kiss Me More" was named collaboration of the year. Kanye West was named favourite gospel artist.
Underwood won for favourite inspirational artist and favourite female country artist and Doja Cat also won two other awards: favourite female R&B artist and her "Planet Her" was named favourite R&B album.
Luke Bryan was named favourite country artist and Bad Bunny was the favourite male Latin artist. The Weeknd was crowned favourite male R&B artist and Drake won the favourite male hip-hop artist. Gabby Barrett took home the favourite country album for "Goldmine" and favourite country song for "The Good Ones."
Australian Associated Press
