For the second year in a row, superstar K-pop boy band BTS has received the IFPI’s 2021 Global Recording Artist of the Year award, the top music industry organization said on Thursday.
The prize was given to the South Korean septet based on their international performance across digital and physical music formats and platforms last year, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
BTS was the best-performing act in the world in 2021, followed by Taylor Swift and Adele as individual artists.
“BTS’ incredible success over the last year is a credit to their ingenuity, hard effort, and continual dedication to finding new methods to expose their music to the globe,” said Frances Moore, chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
“They exhibit their exceptionally unique worldwide appeal by performing in three languages, and their vibrant and passionate fan following has helped them become the only artists in history to top the Global Artist Chart for two years in a row.” We’d like to congratulate RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook, as well as everyone on their team, for earning the Global Recording Artist of the Year Award and another year of incredible success.”
BTS’ Grammy-nominated track Butter and the Permission to Dance B-side single, as well as a high-profile collaboration with Coldplay, My Universe, were both released in 2021.
The IFPI also disclosed the other artists who made up the top 10 in the category, in the following order: Taylor Swift, Adele, Drake, Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd, Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber, Seventeen, and Olivia Rodrigo, in addition to naming BTS as the best-performing musical act in 2021.
Seventeen, a K-pop band managed by BTS’ management organisation Hybe Corp, is the only other group from South Korea in the top ten, with the remainder being from the United States or the United Kingdom.
