BTS's 'Swim' Wins Song of the Year and Best K-Pop at the VMAs

BTS's “Swim” won Song of the Year at the MTV Video Music Awards on 27 September, the award for the year's best song regardless of genre. BTS had been up for it once before, with “Dynamite” in 2021, and lost to Olivia Rodrigo's “Drivers License.” Rosé and Bruno Mars won it last year with “APT.” This time, five years after “Dynamite,” BTS won. The night's top award, Video of the Year, went to Taylor Swift.

“Swim” also won Best K-Pop, ahead of Blackpink, Cortis, Katseye, Le Sserafim (with BTS's own j-hope featured on their entry) and Lisa, and BTS won Best Group, taking all three awards it was nominated for. Lisa had a first of her own that night: “Dream,” whose video stars the Japanese actor Kentaro Sakaguchi, won Best Pop, the first time a K-pop solo artist has won it.

A comeback with the numbers to match

“Swim” is the lead single from “Arirang,” released 20 March 2026 as BTS's first album together since all seven members finished South Korea's mandatory military service in 2025. The single debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and stayed there three weeks straight, opening with 641,000 units, the biggest first week by units for any group since Billboard began counting that way in December 2014.

“Swim” carries nine credited writers, including RM himself alongside OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder and BTS's longtime in-house producer Pdogg, and was produced by Tyler Spry and Leclair.

The same song, a lawsuit and a boycott

“Swim” has spent this year in more than one kind of spotlight. On 8 July, three Los Angeles songwriters sued HYBE, HYBE America, HYBE Music Services, Big Hit Music, Artist Publishing Group and seven of the song's credited co-writers, among them Ryan Tedder, in a US federal court in California, claiming the song reproduces an unreleased demo of the same name they wrote in early 2025. They are seeking damages and a share of the song's profits, or, failing that, to be credited as co-writers. RM and Pdogg, though credited as writers, are not named, and no BTS member is a defendant; HYBE and Big Hit Music have denied the claims.

Three weeks later, on 29 July, BTS said they would not submit “Arirang” or any of its songs for the 2027 Grammys at all, after the Recording Academy created a new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category, saying they hoped music could be heard for itself rather than divided by region or language. “Swim” is sung entirely in English, so it would not have qualified for that category anyway. On 19 August, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said the Academy had spent two weeks talking with people in the industry about it, and on 1 October he confirmed that the category will go ahead at the 2027 ceremony.

A tour that keeps setting records

All of this is happening mid-tour. The Arirang World Tour is booked for 88 shows across 34 cities and 23 countries into March 2027. Two nights at London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in July drew about 130,000 fans, the highest per-show attendance the stadium has recorded since it opened in 2019. The tour's North American leg closed on 6 September at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, near Los Angeles. In early October it reaches Bogotá, Colombia, the group's first visit there as a full group.

Between three VMAs, a lawsuit and a Grammy boycott running alongside them, “Swim” has had a busier year than most singles ever do. Our review of “Normal”, another single from Arirang, the album “Swim” leads, measures how that song holds one volume from its first chorus to its last. BTS's catalogue plays on mymy.