MTV announces the list of nominations for the MTV Video Music Awards 2026. BTS's song "SWIM" appeared in two categories including Song of the Year and Best K-pop.
Song of the Year is one of the main categories of the award. "SWIM" will compete with 6 other nominations, including "Golden" - the famous soundtrack of "KPop Demon Hunters", performed by the fictional band HUNTR/X including EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami.
The results of the category are decided through online voting by the audience. The fact that two products associated with K-pop participate in Song of the Year shows the increasingly clear influence of this music genre in the US market.
In 2025, Rosé and Bruno Mars' "APT." became the first song by a K-pop artist to win the Song of the Year category at MTV VMA. Therefore, the appearance of BTS and "Golden" opens up the possibility that K-pop will continue to win this award for the second consecutive year.
In the Best K-pop category, "SWIM" competed with products from Blackpink, Cortis, Le Sserafim, Katseye and Lisa. Notably, BTS's song was not only ranked in category but also advanced to a main category.
The above information appeared not long after BTS caused controversy with the decision not to send any products competing for the 2027 Grammy Awards.
In June 2026, the American Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences announced the Best Asian Pop Performance category. The category is for K-pop, J-pop, C-pop products and popular music genres in the Asian market, and requires significant use of at least one Asian language.
On July 29, all 7 BTS members simultaneously announced that they would not participate in this year's Grammy awards judging process. The group expressed their desire for music to be listened to and loved true to its nature, instead of being divided by region or language.
Grammy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said he was sad about BTS's decision but respected the group's choice. Grammy representatives affirmed that the new category was created to expand the opportunity to recognize Asian artists, not to separate them from the main awards. Artists can still simultaneously submit their works to the Asian pop category and general categories such as Albums, Recordings or Song of the Year.
In that context, the two MTV VMA nominations for "SWIM" are noteworthy. In particular, the Song of the Year nomination shows that BTS still has the ability to compete in the main award group, instead of just being limited to the K-pop category.
