The People’s Choice Awards, considered the largest popular culture award ceremony in the United States, has become a hot topic as BTS’s Jungkook, the group Stray Kids, TXT, and Korean-American Hollywood star Steven Yeun, who brightened the past year, are nominated as K (Korean) Stars.

The 49th People’s Choice Awards, where BTS has been a regular winner and even named ‘multi-winner’ over several years, are well-known in Korea.

Jungkook has been nominated in four categories, matching the record for the most nominations for a K-pop solo artist and equaling that of BTS. Specifically, he is nominated for Pop Artist, New Artist, Male Artist, and Best Collaboration. Particularly in the Pop Artist category, which is equivalent to the grand prize, Jungkook stands out as the only male artist among strong female contenders, drawing attention.

Jungkook’s connection with the awards can be described as a ‘three-year consecutive win’. As a BTS member, he dominated the ‘Group of the Year’ category from 2020 to 2022 and also won the Collaboration category in 2022 with ‘Left & Right’, a collaboration with global pop star Charlie Puth.

Interest also lies in which team will fill BTS’s absence during their ‘military hiatus’ this year. In the Group/Duo category, out of eight nominees, two are K-pop idols, indicating the direction of the global trend. The two ‘national idol’ teams competing for the most popular group spot in North America are Stray Kids and TXT.

The People’s Choice Awards, which contributed to the ‘Squid Game’ phenomenon, also spotlighted Korean-American Hollywood star Steven Yeun this year. Through the Netflix original series ‘Beef’, he has been nominated in the ‘TV Performance’ category.

With his surprise win at the Golden Globes earlier, Steven Yeun is even opening up possibilities for a sweep at various awards early this year. He has garnered a large fan base in Korea through Director Lee Chang-dong’s film ‘Burning’ and the film ‘Minari’, which brought a peak period for Youn Yuh-jung.

The 49th People’s Choice Awards will be broadcast on February 19th (Korean time) through NBC, entertainment channel E!, and the streaming service Peacock.