Members of BTS on Nov. 21, 2021, celebrate after winning Artist of the Year at the 49th American Music Awards held at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Yonhap News)

By Kim Hayeon 

The American Music Awards (AMAs) is the first among the top three music honors of the U.S. to introduce the category Favorite K-pop Artist.

The AMAs on Oct. 13 unveiled this year's nominees in 37 categories, saying it added the K-pop award.

BLACKPINK, BTS, Seventeen, Tomorrow X Together and Twice are the five nominees for the inaugural award. 

The AMAs honors artists by musical genre such as pop, country, hip-hop, R&B, Latin, rock, gospel, and dance and electronic. K-pop is the latest to be added.

Named Artist of the Year last year, BTS is nominated for Favorite Pop Duo or Group at this year's awards. 

Adele, Bad Bunny, Beyonce, Drake, Harry Styles, Taylor Swift and the Weeknd are up for Artist of the Year. 

The MTV Video Music Awards and MTV Europe Music Awards each have the category Best K-Pop Video. 

This year's awards ceremony is slated for Nov. 20 at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. The American network ABC will also livestream the event.

The American Music Awards (AMA) this year has added the category Favorite K-pop Artist in a first among the top three music awards of the U.S. Shown are the five K-pop acts nominated for the inaugural honor. (Official Facebook page of AMAs)