BTS Wins Artist of the Year at 2026 American Music Awards; Taylor Swift Goes 0-8

There was no one big winner at the 2026 American Music Awards, which were presented at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Monday (May 25). Instead, seven acts tied for the lead with three awards each – Bruno Mars, BTS, Cardi B, KATSEYE, Sabrina Carpenter, HUNTR/X and Sombr.

But one artist had a notably off night – Taylor Swift, who led the nominations with eight nods but didn’t win any of them. Despite her disappointing showing this year, Swift remains the artist with the most AMAs in the show’s history – a whopping 40.

BTS won artist of the year for the second time. The K-Pop superstars first won in the category in 2021. BTS is one of just four repeat winners in the history of the category. Swift leads all artists with seven awards in the category. BTS is tied with Justin Bieber and One Direction with two wins each. BTS is thus tied with 1D as the group with the most wins in the category.

BTS also won song of the summer for “Swim” and best male K-Pop artist. These three awards bring their career tally of AMAs to 14. Among groups or duos, they are second only to Alabama. The country titans won 23 AMAs.

Bieber won best male pop artist, which brings his career tally of AMA awards to 19. That puts him in a tie with the late Kenny Rogers for the second-most wins among male artists. (The late Michael Jackson leads among men, with 24 awards.) This obviously makes Bieber the living male artist with the most AMA wins.

KATSEYE won new artist of the year. The global girl group was nominated for the Grammy for best new artist in February but lost to Olivia Dean, who was among the nominees here. KATSEYE is the seventh consecutive female act to win in this category. The last six winners were female solo artists: Camilla Cabello, Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, Dove Cameron and Gracie Abrams. The last male winner in this category was Niall Horan in 2017. KATSEYE also won best music video and breakthrough pop artist.

HUNTR/X’s “Golden” won song of the year, continuing its winning streak at award shows. It won best song written for visual media at the Grammys and best original song at the Oscars. HUNTR/X also won AMAs for best vocal performance and best pop song.

Sombr won three awards – best rock/alternative song for “Back to Friends,” best rock/alternative album for I Barely Know Her and breakthrough rock/alternative artist. Sombr’s win in the song category was no surprise, but even he expressed surprise at his win in the album category. The album reached No. 10 on the Billboard 200; all of the other nominees climbed higher. Sleep Token’s Even in Arcadia, Twenty One Pilots’ Breach and Zach Bryan’s With Heaven on Top each reached No. 1. Tame Impala’s Deadbeat climbed as high as No. 4. This shows the power of a smash single with universal appeal.

Of the three other three-time winners on the night, Mars won best male R&B artist, best R&B song and best R&B album; Cardi B won best female hip-hop artist, best hip-hop song and best hip-hop album; and Carpenter won album of the year, best female pop artist and best pop album.

Swift wasn’t the only artist with a large number of nominations who was shut out. Also going winless were Dean, who had seven nods; and Warren and Lady Gaga, with six nods each.

Karol G‘s Tropicoqueta won best Latin album, beating, among others, Rosalía’s Lux. Lux is expected to be a major player in next year’s Grammy Awards. Tropicoqueta was nominated for best Latin pop album at the 2026 ceremony. Karol G also won the international artist award of excellence.

Twenty One Pilots won best rock/alternative artist for the second year in a row and the fourth time overall. Only one act has won more times in this category, which was first presented in 1995. That’s Linkin Park, which won has won six times (and was nominated this year).

The Black Eyed Peas’ “Rock That Body” won in the new category of best throwback song. The song was the fifth single from the group’s Billboard 200-topping 2010 album The E.N.D. It was the most recently released song among the nominees. The other nominees were 4 Non Blondes’ “What’s Up” (1993) and Goo Dolls’ “Iris” (1998).

Queen Latifah hosted the 52nd American Music Awards, which aired on CBS and streamed on Paramount+. The AMAs, the world’s largest fan-voted award show, was created by legendary producer Dick Clark and first awarded in 1974.

The 52nd American Music Awards nominees are based on key fan interactions, including streaming, album and song sales, radio airplay and tour grosses. These measurements are tracked by Billboard and Luminate, and cover the data tracking eligibility period of March 21, 2025 through March 26, 2026.

The American Music Awards are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Eldridge Industries and Billboard parent company Penske Media.