BTS Becomes Youngest Recipients Of Order Of Cultural Merit At 2018 Korean Popular Culture & Arts Awards

BTS makes history again!

On October 24, BTS attended the 2018 Korean Popular Culture & Arts Awards and received an Order of Cultural Merit as the youngest recipients in history.

 

Later that day, BTS shared a post on their Twitter that was captioned, “It is an award that we won together. Thank you so much,” along with a photo of the award.

 

The Order of Cultural Merit is awarded by the President of South Korea, currently Moon Jae In, for “outstanding meritorious services in the fields of culture and art in the interest of promoting the national culture and national development.

 

According to the Korean Popular Culture & Arts Awards, BTS won this award for being “a global musician who has set a new milestone in the development of Hallyu. They have lifted the status of K-Pop by becoming the first Korean artists to rank No.1 on the Billboard 200 chart with two of their albums.”

 

RM made his speech short, stating that he would like to let the other members share their thoughts since he was usually the one to make all the speeches.

“Thank you very much. Because I am the leader of BTS, I am usually in charge of making the speeches but since we will be making our own individual speeches today, I’d like to allow our members to speak their minds. We return this honor to ARMYs.” ㅡ RM

 

Jin expressed that they are very proud of having contributed to the Korean culture and will continue to do their best to do so.

“First of all, thank you so much for this award. We often go overseas and when we do, many people sing along to our songs in Korean and boast that they’ve studied Korean hard. I was very happy to hear this and we will continue to do our best to promote our culture.” ㅡ Jin

 

V spent his speech time to talk about his family, thank ARMYs and wish everyone wonderful days ahead of them.

“I’m not sure right now. I don’t know how to express what’s in my mind right now. I think my family will be very proud of me hereon. Also, I’m not good at expressing myself but I want to thank ARMYs and tell them that we love them. I hope everyone here today will be filled with happy days.” ㅡ V

 

Suga also expressed his thanks for helping BTS achieve so much within a short period of time.

“It is truly an honor. Thank you very much. So much has happened this year. No.1 on the Billboard charts, the Billboard Music Awards, AMA, the UN speech and now, the Order of Cultural Merit, it is truly a huge honor. We will promote Korean music with the mind of a national representative.” ㅡ Suga

 

Jimin thanked everyone who has been with BTS and returned the honor to them.

“Our leader hyung always makes the speeches so I feel like my heart is going to explode now that I’m up here. Everyone, this award is significant because it was created by our members, company, families, staff, managers and you guys. I want to say once again that it feels huge to me. So I am very thankful for everyone who is always with us and I wanted to say that this award goes to all of you. Thank you so much. I think we are probably the youngest here but it is an honor to be able to meet industry seniors who we respect very much. We will do our best to have a good influence on many people, just like them.”

 

Jungkook, the youngest BTS member and youngest person to receive the Order of Cultural Merit, expressed that receiving the award was an honor and thanked ARMYs as well as family and Producer Bang Si Hyuk.

“First of all, thank you for giving us such a meaningful award. I believe it’s a great honor to accept an award with all our seniors here. To be honest, this award is overwhelming for all of us but we will gratefully accept it thinking it was given for us to work harder. I thank ARMYs who cheer for us from close and afar, our family and CEO Bank Si Hyuk. We will continue to spread the Korean culture to various places around the world.” ㅡ Jungkook

 

Finally, J-Hope also expressed his thoughts for receiving the honorable award.

“I am the hope of BTS, J-Hope. I’ve been using this phrase for a long time. I am extremely happy to see that we are becoming a hope for the Korean popular culture. The Order of Cultural Merit is a huge award. It is an award that holds the valuable weight of the effort and passion of numerous staff, the blood and sweat of BTS and the energetic cheering of ARMYs around the world. We will continue to be the hope of popular culture as will continue our activities. Thank you so much. I love you, ARMYs!” ㅡ J-Hope

Source: Newsen

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