Billboard’s Greatest Pop Star of 2020: BTS

(In 2020, the Billboard staff updated our originally 2018-released list project, which selected a Greatest Pop Star of every year going back to 1981. Read our entry below on why BTS was our Greatest Pop Star of 2020 — with our ’20 Honorable Mention runner-ups, Rookie of the Year and Comeback of the Year pop stars at the bottom — and find the rest of our picks for every year up to present day here.)

Americans have a checkered history of dismissing things they don’t understand — the metric system, universal healthcare, and of course, K- pop. Until the last few years, the colorful world of Korean pop was a genre that was on the periphery of the American pop mainstream, marked by viral-hit outliers like PSY’s “Gangnam Style” and groups like 2NE1 and Girls’ Generation gracing the lower reaches of the Billboard charts. But after half a decade of internationally successful tours, three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, and a steadily amassed fan ARMY that includes followers from all over the world, RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook — better known as the world-conquering boy band BTS — heralded the genre’s true U.S. breakthrough, and became the greatest pop stars of 2020.

In February 2020, the septet released their fourth studio album Map of the Soul: 7, led by the electrifying “On.” The album earned the group their fourth No. 1 on the Billboard 200, with critics noting their musical diversity and maturity as songwriters. Despite such acclaim and a strong chart debut, the group remained largely off the U.S. radio airwaves. In a push to win over stateside listeners, the track was accompanied by three stunning visuals, a remixed rendition featuring English-language pop star Sia, and a tour of the hottest tickets on late night TV. “On” became BTS’ first entry to land in the top five on the Hot 100, debuting at No. 4. With the group’s international stadium tour slated to kick off in April, things were revving up for BTS to officially take over the U.S. market.

But by March, the COVID-19 pandemic had dashed the live hopes for BTS and every other touring artist. While many acts scrambled to pivot, every move of the group’s in the consequent months was made with precision — securing both financial and cultural gains in the U.S., South Korea, and the rest of the world. With the support of its dedicated fan base, BTS instead dominated in the livestream and virtual space, holding June’s widely successful Bang Bang Con virtual concert (which drew in $19 million) and making a heartfelt commencement speech (delivered in both English and Korean) at Youtube’s Dear Class of 2020, a virtual event for students graduating in the time of COVID. While A-list stars tend to be selective with their appearances, BTS doubled down on performances, as they made rounds at the Billboard Music Awards, the MTV Video Music Awards, and even a more intimate set at NPR’s Tiny Desk — ultimately maintaining the members’ visibility and social media presence all throughout the year.

Beyond the numbers, the group also translated the social consciousness of its music into action by responding to the racial reckoning in America. In June, following the national protests over George Floyd’s killing, BTS donated $1 million to the Black Lives Matter movement. When asked about this decision, Jin recalled how “when we’re abroad or in other situations, we’ve also been subjected to prejudice.” (BTS’ rise in US popularity has also persisted despite the alarming rise in discrimination and hate crimes against Asian-Americans in 2020, likely stemming from the rhetoric surrounding COVID-19.)

When August rolled around, the eight memembers still had a few tricks up their pastel-colored sleeves. Even with their growing list of achievements, BTS remained absent from American pop radio until they released their first ever English-language single, the explosive megapop track “Dynamite.” Dropping the single became the group’s crowning moment in mainstream U.S. music, making its way to radio stations, awards shows, TikTok trends, and the top spot on the Hot 100. The track even grabbed the attention of the Recording Academy, with a Grammy nomination for best pop duo/group performance — the first-ever Grammy nomination for a K-pop artist, a feat long coveted by the band. By October, BTS’ label Big Hit Entertainment had positioned itself to go public on the Korea Exchange. The label raised the equivalent of $840 million in its initial public offering (IPO) — making Big Hit founder/co-CEO Bang Si-hyuk a billionaire.

On the heels of the group’s first No. 1, BTS notched two more buzzer-beating Hot 100-toppers to round out the year. In October BTS racked up a second No. 1 with an appearance on the remix to Jawsh 685 and Jason Derulo’s “Savage Love,” helping the song catapult from No. 8 to the top spot following the new version’s first week of release. Then, to cap the group’s historic 2020, BTS dropped fifth studio album Be in November, along with its melancholy, quarantine-appropriate single “Life Goes On.” Both album and single simultaneously debuted at No. 1, on the Billboard 200 and Hot 100, respectively. Impressively, “Life Goes On” became the first primarily Korean No. 1 in the latter chart’s 62-year history (beating the previous No. 2 peak of PSY’s “Gangnam Style” in 2012).

It’s impossible to ignore that BTS is the first Asian artist to appear on this list, alongside undeniable, no-questions-asked English-language superstars. While non-English works of art are often sidelined into “foreign” categories, this level of recognition for a predominantly Korean-language band from Western media — the group was even named 2020 Entertainer of the Year by TIME — feels like a changing of the guard at the gates of American top 40. With each milestone and new No. 1 in 2020, BTS made it harder for U.S. audiences to deny not only the group’s own supreme superstardom, but also K-pop’s much-deserved place in mainstream music. And now that we’re finally listening, it pains us to imagine all the potential pop classics we missed out on simply because of the language barrier between us.

Honorable Mention: The Weeknd (After Hours, “Blinding Lights,” “In Your Eyes”), Dua Lipa (Future Nostalgia, “Don’t Start Now,” “Break My Heart”), Taylor Swift (Folklore, Evermore, Miss Americana documentary) 

Rookie of the Year: Roddy Ricch

“Stream yummy by justin bieber.” That message, along with a flex emoji, was Compton, CA rapper Roddy Ricch’s tweeted response to the Belieber fan movement — also promoted by Bieber himself — to get the pop superstar’s new single to No. 1 on the Hot 100. But Ricch knew that the song then occupying the top spot, his own cinematic blockbuster “The Box,” was likely unmovable; indeed, the captivating, flow-shifting breakthrough smash would end up spending 11 straight weeks atop the chart. He’d add on another seven weeks to that tally in the summer with his guest spot on DaBaby’s “Rockstar,” and spent three additional weeks atop the Billboard 200 with his action-packed debut LP Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial after it debuted at No. 1 at the end of 2019, proving his solo star power. His response when Selena Gomez’s fans tried to mount a challenge to it for one of those weeks? “Stream rare by selena gomez.” 

Comeback of the Year: The Black Eyed Peas

“I want to make fantasy, feel-good, people-travel-the-world music,” Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am told Billboard of his ambitions in June 2020 — a time when not a lot of people were traveling the world or feeling good. Still, fantasy has always been a specialty of the pop-rap group, whose commercial peak came with a series of celebratory party jams released in the wake of the ‘08 financial crisis. The world was once again ready for will & co. in 2020, when the reunited group’s globetrotting took them to the world of Latin pop and reggaetón, resulting in their first visits to the Hot 100 since 2011, via collabs with international stars J Balvin (“Ritmo (Bad Boys For Life)”) and Ozuna (“Mamacita”). The group’s comeback year was capped by a closing set at the MTV Video Music Awards, ending with them playing signature smash “I Gotta Feeling” while a gigantic UFO appeared from above to beam them up; for 2020, it felt about right. 

(Read on to our Greatest Pop Star of 2021 here, or head back to the full list here.)