BTS ranks as top music act for Twitter mentions in U.S.

SEOUL, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- South Korean boy band BTS was the most-tweeted-about musical group in the United States in 2020.

The band's label, Big Hit Entertainment, said Monday the seven-member group is the most frequently mentioned musical artist on Twitter for the fourth year in a row, starting in 2017.

American rapper Kanye West ranked second, followed by Beyoncé and Drake.

Other K-pop groups, including ATEEZ, NCT and EXO, made the list of the top 10 most-tweeted-about musicians, along with Megan Thee Stallion, Harry Styles and Bad Bunny.

Earlier this month, Twitter announced that global tweets related to K-pop reached a record high of 6.7 billion last year -- a 10 percent increase from 2019. Overall, BTS was the sixth most mentioned account on the platform, just behind former U.S. President Barack Obama.

West was the only other musician in the general top 10 list.

BTS grabbed headlines last year after its first English-language song, "Dynamite," reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In December, TIME named the idol group its "entertainer of the year," and BTS was nominated for a Grammy Award for best pop song -- a first for any K-pop musician.