Artist of the Year, again — five years later — and somewhere in Las Vegas this week, ARMY is celebrating with a purple Oreo. I'm Joey, Liz is here, and this is BTS Daily. We’re doing the full morning-after on the 52nd AMAs win, the Oreo collab that just dropped, and whether Busan hotels are actually going to behave themselves. And no, that hotel question is not random. Allegiant Stadium dates are happening right now, and fan pressure is a very different thing from a city ordinance. But first — they beat Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny, Bruno Mars, and Justin Bieber. That was the exact list we named on May 22nd, so yeah, r/bangtan called it and I owe that thread a very sincere apology. This one's from Arirang News:
The group took home the top honor as they beat major global stars including Bad Bunny, Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift. This marks BTS' second win in the Artist of the Year category following their historic first victory back in 2021 when they became the first Asian act ever to receive the award. BTS also won Best Male K-pop Artist and their latest release Swim won Song of the Summer.
We spent all week asking whether a second Artist of the Year win was even in play five years after 2021, and Monday in Las Vegas answered it with three trophies: Artist of the Year, Best Male K-pop Artist, and Song of the Summer for SWIM. That opener turned into a three-award night. Bad Bunny, Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift — that was the exact list we read out on May 22nd, and BTS cleared the whole field. I told the r/bangtan thread not to get their hopes up, so I owe them a formal apology. What makes this Artist of the Year win feel so different from 2021 is the gap. They were the first Asian act ever to win it, then came five years of industry shifts, military hiatus, comeback, and now they win it again by public vote. At the AMAs, fan voice is the mechanism — no jury — so this is a very direct read on where ARMY mobilization stands in 2026. And SWIM taking Song of the Summer the same night the group wins Artist of the Year? We were calling that nomination almost rude to everybody else back in May, and now it has actual hardware attached to it. Two major awards in one era is a different conversation than one. Jonathan Hicap, writing in Manila Bulletin:
The group secured wins in all three categories they were nominated for—Artist of the Year, Song of the Summer for “Swim,” and Best Male K-Pop Artist—marking one of the night’s most dominant performances. With their latest Artist of the Year victory, BTS became only the fourth act in AMAs history to win the category multiple times, joining Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and One Direction.
So yes — second Artist of the Year, 2021 to 2026, and they swept all three nominations on the same night. Three for three at the 52nd AMAs is not a repeat visit. That’s a statement about where the group stands five years and a full military hiatus later. And I will publicly apologize to r/bangtan right now, because I kept the expectations too low on the whole 'we win all the awards' energy, and they beat Bad Bunny, Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and Taylor Swift. The thread was correct. I was wrong. Moving on. RM's exact words — 'after everybody has done their military service' — that's the line that matters. The fan vote has always been emotional, but he put the hiatus right inside the acceptance speech and made the comeback arc explicit. That was not an accident. And now BTS are only the fourth act to win Artist of the Year more than once — Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, One Direction, and BTS. That’s the company they’re keeping. That’s the sentence. Okay, so when BTS or HYBE publicly calls out hotel price gouging before a concert, does that actually change anything structural — or is it just vibes and fan pressure? It's fair to be skeptical about it, but in this case the pressure did turn into real institutional muscle. Within days of the Busan tour dates dropping on January 14th, hotels were already cancelling confirmed reservations to re-list rooms at higher rates — per the Straits Times, fans both domestic and international reported those unilateral cancellations within hours of the schedule going live. That triggered a response that went all the way to the presidential level: per JoongAng Daily, President Lee Jae-myung directly ordered strong countermeasures, which prompted Busan Metropolitan Government to announce on-site inspections and a QR-code-based fan reporting system. Busan City also convened a public-private joint countermeasure meeting and introduced what they're calling 'Good Price' establishments — essentially a vetted list of fairly-priced lodging alternatives, per Kyunghyang Shinmun. And by late February, the national government escalated further: per Chosun, the central government moved to make first-offense suspension of operations an immediate consequence for price gouging, and introduced an advance price reporting requirement for the accommodation industry. That's a structural rule change, not just a warning. But the Korea Times reporting suggested local governments didn't actually have effective tools to enforce any of this — so which is it? Are the new rules real, or still mostly symbolic? That tension is exactly the story to watch as the June concert dates approach. The Korea Times piece noted that criticism, but the February central government action on immediate suspensions is a harder lever than anything local officials had before. The May Busan city announcement of pre-concert protections suggests the enforcement posture is still being built out in real time. So yes, the rules are getting sharper — the open question is whether inspectors follow through on the ground when concert week hits. PR Newswire writes:
OREO and BTS fans, get ready for an OREO cookie BTS made just for you. That's right: RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook are joining forces with the world's #1 cookie to drop the Limited Edition OREO & BTS Cookies, a brown sugar pancake flavored OREO cookie created by BTS and dedicated to BTS fans.
Okay, the OREO collab is official — PR Newswire, straight from the brand. Hotteok-inspired brown sugar pancake flavor, purple wafers for ARMY, and 13 unique embossments because this is year thirteen. That last detail is doing real work, because a global snack company built the whole product concept around the anniversary number. BTS designed the embossments themselves — all 13. That's not a licensing slap-on, that's actual creative input from the members. And this drops the same week they won Artist of the Year? Someone on that OREO marketing team has an extremely good calendar. It's in 80-plus markets, so this is genuinely global and not just a regional fan merch play. My one question is whether the love letter campaign attached to it gets the same reach — inviting fans to submit letters for a 'global stage' is a nice concept, but the cookie itself is the hard news. If your playlist also has room for BLACKPINK, check out BLACKPINK Daily Podcast: daily BLINK updates on Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo, and Rosé, from solo releases to fashion, charts, tours, and comeback watch. Find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
Links for everything we covered today are waiting in the show notes, so if a headline caught your ear, you can follow it back to the source there.
That's BTS Daily Podcast for this Wednesday, May 27th. This is a Lantern Podcast.