BTS to Make Award Show Return on American Music Awards

BTS takes the stage for the first time in over three years. BigHit Music and Netflix

BTS is officially making their return to award shows.

The K-pop superstars will be making a special appearance at the American Music Awards on May 25, the show announced Wednesday morning. The show is being held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Memorial Day. The seven-member group will already be in town for their four sold-out shows at the nearby Allegiant Stadium.

BTS is up for three awards including artist of the year, song of the summer and best male K-pop artist.

Has Rage-Bait Killed Eurovision?

Music

Moses Sumney Never Wanted To Score Movies. Then He Read the 'Is God Is' Script

A historic trailblazer in the globalization of K-pop, BTS took over the entire heart of their home city of Seoul earlier this year to celebrate their return to the scene after all seven members completed their military service. The group held a large scale live stream show with Netflix, setting it in a historic location in the city, Gwanghwamun.

The choice to stage the comeback performance in front of Gwanghwamun, the main gate and historic entryway to Seoul’s Gyeongbokgung Palace, was no coincidence — as the new album is in many ways a meditation on the group’s cultural identity. The album’s name, Arirang, pays tribute to a treasured Korean folk ballad of the same name, which was famously the country’s first song, sung by Korean men, ever recorded (it was preserved for posterity by American ethnologist Alice Fletcher in 1896).

Motifs from the original “Arirang” feature prominently in the closing minutes of the new album’s opening track, “Body to Body.” One of the most striking tracks on the album is “No. 29,” a song made up only of the sound of a bell being tolled once, with the resonant ringing lasting a minute and 38 seconds. The bell used for the recording is Korea’s original, 1,255-year-old Divine Bell of King Seongdeok. The song’s title is a reference to the historic object’s official designation as “South Korea’s National Treasure No. 29.”

In March, the group released a documentary on Netflix, which chronicled their balancing act during the making of Arirang as the band looked to honor its roots in Korea even as their audience has expanded to encompass the entire world.

They made their return to U.S. late night television later in March, appearing on two nights of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. The first night found the group as the guest and musical host, staging a performance of their single “Swim” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The second episode featured a performance of the group’s song “2.0,” also filmed at the museum.

BTS is in the midst of their first full-scale, all-group tour in years. The tour, spanning 2026 and 2027, hits Asia, North America, Europe, Latin America and Australia, making it one of the most expansive tours of the group’s career.

The tour kicked off three nights in Goyang, South Korea, before heading to Tokyo for two nights. BTS held their first U.S. stop in Tampa. Beginning May 23, BTS will play four shows in Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium. They’ll perform the two days leading up to the AMAs before picking the shows back up on Wednesday, May 27.