The Billboard Music Awards were full of big performances, dynamic reunions, and it was also ground zero for K-Pop (thanks BTS.) Those things, though, you saw on TV. But what was happening in the audience inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas while cameras weren’t rolling?
Here are a few things you didn’t see on TV:
Before the show began, the crowd was told to “be silent” for the opening of the show when host Kelly Clarkson paid tribute to the victims at Santa Fe High School. Clarkson was emotional on screen, and more so off-screen. After her cold open when she was off the air, Clarkson wiped tears from her eyes and her knees buckled.
Janet Jackson may have won the Icon award, but K-Pop group BTS was easily the group the fans came to see. Before the show began, fans, many of them teen girls, chanted “BTS” while holding purple lamps. The BTS Army was, well, loud… really loud. The fans chanted during commercial breaks that didn’t even involve the group. When the group won top social artist, the screams were ear-piercing.
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Many of over-the-hill Billboard attendees asked each other, “Who are these guys?” Just before BTS went on stage later in the show for their performance, the crowd loudly chanted “Army!” In fact, the fans were so loud that Clarkson’s intro and outro couldn’t be heard inside the arena —and she had a microphone (and earmuffs!).
Check out PEOPLE’s full Billboard Music Awards coverage to get the latest news on music’s big night.
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