BTS’s Jungkook And BLACKPINK Lisa’s Award Show Nominations Spark Anger And Confusion

The 2024 MTV Video Music Awards nominations were released on August 6. Like the last few years, they included several K-Pop artists across multiple categories.

The K-Pop Artist Nominees For The “2024 MTV VMAs” Across Every Category

Normally, these nominations are a huge point of pride for fans, as their favorites are nominated alongside other huge acts.

However, BTS‘s Jungkook and BLACKPINK Lisa‘s nominations have resulted in confusion and discussions of racism.

In 2019, MTV added the “Best K-Pop” category to the awards show, giving K-Pop idols a category to win. This was viewed from two different perspectives, with some seeing it as a way of separating K-Pop stars from the other categories while others saw it as an indication of how huge the genre has grown.

And with K-Pop stars being nominated for and winning other categories, like TXT’s win for “PUSH Performance of the Year,” there is proof of the latter.

And the #VMA for PUSH Performance of the Year goes to… @TXT_Members 🚀

CONGRATS on taking home your first moonperson!!! pic.twitter.com/0GT8U8btqI

— Video Music Awards (@vmas) September 12, 2023

This year, the K-Pop category was included again, including Jungkook and Lisa as the only solo artists nominated. Jungkook’s “SEVEN (feat. Latto)” earned the nomination, while Lisa’s “Rockstar” earned the idol hers.

While this is an achievement, some have pointed out some issues with these two stars’ nominations.

Both “SEVEN” and “Rockstar” are in English language releases, and in Jungkook’s case, released on an entirely English album. In both cases, across music platforms, each song has been classified as Pop rather than K-Pop.

Other than the fact that each idol is in a K-Pop group, and Jungkook is Korean, many are saying that there was no reason for these tracks to have been pushed into the K-Pop category.

literally 0 hate to either of the artists but why are 2 fully english songs nominated under kpop instead of best pop? like i get they’re korea based artists but the songs aren’t in korean why not give them a nomination in best pop instead? https://t.co/mQEcalieU4

— mica🥠 MEETING EVNNE (@phbzone) August 6, 2024

English songs getting nominated for best kpop doesn't make sense 😶

— N 🥠 (@jeonginnerzz) August 6, 2024

Ikr
They could easily get nominated in the pop or best song category, they pulled numbers similar to those western artists https://t.co/cZeXihlwSC

— aisha😴 (@AishaMulti95) August 6, 2024

Some feel it is racism fueling these nominations, placing the Asian artists in a single category together.

they literally created a whole new category just for Asian artists cuz they don't want them to steal awards from westerns, rockstar is a song made by a thai woman with english lyrics, and it's literally labeled as pop in apple music but it's in the kpop category? such a joke https://t.co/Kqf69B8BXI

— Lulu | 🇵🇸 (@cynolover_) August 6, 2024

best kpop?…and not giving it a soty nom…just them being racist and petty like always, god i hate vma https://t.co/AqWk1IuZ2B

— el⁷ (@hitannies) August 6, 2024

Fastest song to reach 1 billion in history, #1 on every billboard charts, spent more than two months on #1 on Spotify, just for their racist ass to nominate it for "best kpop" and not best pop and soty? https://t.co/Z31nLFUaRo

— jk' abg (@varbiejjk) August 6, 2024