December 05, 2018
Wednesday, Twitter released year-end data revealing 2018's most tweeted-about user on the social platform – and it's not Beyoncé, Ariana Grande or Kanye West, although they all did make the top 10 for most tweeted-about musicians.
Instead, this year's crown goes to Korean boy band BTS, which also holds the top spot in the musicians category. On Twitter, the K-pop band of singers/rappers/dancers has 17.2 million followers.
Their #InMyFeelingsChallenge video to Drake's hit song was also this year's most-liked tweet, with 1.7 million hearts.
That's all very impressive. I'm lucky if even five strangers on the internet like my tweet. But when news broke about the most tweeted-about celeb, I realized I knew virtually nothing about BTS. I couldn't even make an educated guess as to what those letters meant.
Not one to be left out, I made it my life's day's work to find out why the South Korean boy band is such a big deal.
I put on some of the group's most popular songs to listen to while I filled my brain with all-important BTS knowledge. You can listen to "Idol" and "Fake Love" below, then read on for some fast facts.
1. BTS is an acronym for "Bangtan Sonyeondan," which loosely translates in English to "Bulletproof Boy Scouts." In 2017, they announced they'd also be known as "Beyond the Scene."
2. The group made its debut in 2013. There are seven members: RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook. All of them are currently in their 20s.
3. BTS fans are known as the ARMY. It's actually an acronym for "Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth." I'm still not 100-percent sure what that means, but once I'm a BTS super fan, I'm sure I'll get it.
4. Their 2017 Billboard Music Awards win for Top Social Artist marked the start of their breakthrough in the U.S. At this year's Billboard Awards they sang "Fake Love" – becoming the first Korean act to ever perform at the show – and also took home the prize for Top Social Artist.
5. BTS is on both the year-end Billboard 200 Albums and Billboard Top Artists charts.
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