BTS Army Divided as RM Wins Over Jimin at AMAs 2025—Was It Fair?
BTS's RM, Kim Namjoon, achieved a major milestone on May 27. He was named Favorite K-Pop Artist at the American Music Awards (AMAs) 2025. This win was special because RM became the first Korean artist to receive an AMA award.
Fans congratulated RM on social media, but some called the result rigged and claimed that the real winner was BTS's Jimin.
Why were questions raised about RM's AMAs win?
A debate broke out on social media regarding the Favorite K-Pop Artist award. Many fans shared screenshots showing that Jimin was far ahead in hashtags during voting, while RM was second.Voting for this award was done in two ways—on the AMAs website and through Instagram hashtags. Some fans showed Instagram tracking data in which Jimin was at the top, followed by RM, and then Stray Kids.
Since it's OBVIOUSLY rigged. We are posting the real data of #AMAs instagram votes tracked.
— ❄️FirstSnow JiminData｜slow (@FJimindata) May 27, 2025
P.S. We have saved all the original website files.
Please also remember we were leading by a huge margin on every polls. pic.twitter.com/sXZH3xoyEK
Should Jimin have won the Favorite K-Pop Artist award?
Many people said that the result was "clearly rigged". They argued that if Jimin got more votes, why did RM win the award? However, it is worth noting that hashtags alone do not determine the results. Voting from the AMAs website is also involved. Also, the authenticity of the data shared has not been confirmed.So it is difficult to say whether Jimin should have won this award or not.
Was RM's nomination in the AMAs justified?
Not only RM's win, but his AMAs nomination was also controversial. Many fans showed data from US charts such as Billboard and raised the question "How did RM get nominated?"
Some screenshots showed that RM's name was very low in the Billboard rankings, while other nominated artists such as Jimin, Rosé and Stray Kids were ranked higher.
However, it is not yet clear what the selection process is for the nominations in the Favorite K-Pop Artist category. Therefore, it would not be completely correct to judge the nominations based solely on chart performance.
