Stars · music
Lisa Is the First Solo Act to Win an MTV VMA for Best Pop — and Only the Second K-Pop Win Ever
BLACKPINK's Lisa won Best Pop for "Dream" at the 2026 VMAs on 27 September in Los Angeles. In the award's 17-year history, only one other winner has been an Asian act: BTS, six years earlier, as a group.
BLACKPINK’s Lisa won Best Pop at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards, held 27 September at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, for her solo single “Dream,” featuring Japanese actor Kentaro Sakaguchi. It was her first VMA win from four nominations this year.
Two Asian wins in seventeen years
Best Pop has been awarded every year since 2010. Across all 17 ceremonies, the winner has been a US- or UK-based act in every year but two.
| Year | Winner |
|---|---|
| 2010 | Lady Gaga |
| 2011 | Britney Spears |
| 2012 | One Direction |
| 2013 | Selena Gomez |
| 2014 | Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea |
| 2015 | Taylor Swift |
| 2016 | Beyoncé |
| 2017 | Fifth Harmony ft. Gucci Mane |
| 2018 | Ariana Grande |
| 2019 | Jonas Brothers |
| 2020 | BTS |
| 2021 | Justin Bieber ft. Daniel Caesar & Giveon |
| 2022 | Harry Styles |
| 2023 | Taylor Swift |
| 2024 | Taylor Swift |
| 2025 | Ariana Grande |
| 2026 | Lisa ft. Kentaro Sakaguchi |
BTS won in 2020, as a seven-member group. Lisa’s win, six years later, is the first by a solo artist from an Asian act — and only the second Asian win of any kind in the category’s history.
A crowded field, one crossover
This year’s Best K-Pop category — a separate, genre-specific award — carried six K-pop-affiliated nominees: Lisa, Blackpink, BTS, Cortis, Katseye, and Le Sserafim featuring J-Hope. Lisa was the only solo act in that group of six. Best Pop sits outside the K-Pop category entirely, competing against the full field of pop releases regardless of origin — and the single win that crossed over from that crowded K-pop field into the open category went to her.
Per the Naver/News1 account of the ceremony, Lisa accepted the award in English and Thai, thanking her fan base — known as “Lilies” — by name. “Dream” was originally released in August 2025.
This is a count of one award category’s winners across seventeen ceremonies. It says how rare this specific win is within this specific category — not how any other award, chart, or category has treated K-pop acts, and not a claim about what happens next.
Where these numbers come from
Sources
- STARNEWS (via News1, sourcing Reuters) — Naver Entertainment syndication — ceremony report and acceptance-speech account · https://m.entertain.naver.com/home/article/108/0003474021
- Wikipedia — MTV Video Music Award for Best Pop — full winners list, 2010–2026 · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV_Video_Music_Award_for_Best_Pop
- Wikipedia — 2026 MTV Video Music Awards — nominee and winner list, sourced to Pitchfork's ceremony report · https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_MTV_Video_Music_Awards
What we checked
- Best Pop winners, 2010–2026 (17 ceremonies): Lady Gaga (2010), Britney Spears (2011), One Direction (2012), Selena Gomez (2013), Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea (2014), Taylor Swift (2015), Beyoncé (2016), Fifth Harmony ft. Gucci Mane (2017), Ariana Grande (2018), Jonas Brothers (2019), BTS (2020), Justin Bieber ft. Daniel Caesar & Giveon (2021), Harry Styles (2022), Taylor Swift (2023), Taylor Swift (2024), Ariana Grande (2025), Lisa ft. Kentaro Sakaguchi (2026).
- Of these 17 winners, exactly two are Asian acts — BTS in 2020 and Lisa in 2026 — six years apart. Every other winner in the category's history is a US- or UK-based act.
- Lisa drew four 2026 VMA nominations for "Dream": Best Pop (won), Best K-Pop, Best Cinematography, Best Editing.
- The Best K-Pop category alone carried six K-pop-affiliated nominees this year — Lisa, Blackpink, BTS, Cortis, Katseye, and Le Sserafim featuring J-Hope. Lisa was the only solo act among the six, and the one crossover win into the non-genre-specific Best Pop category went to her.
- Per the Naver/News1 account, Lisa's acceptance speech was delivered in English and Thai, thanking her fan base ("Lilies") by name; "Dream" features Japanese actor Kentaro Sakaguchi and was originally released in August 2025.
What we left out, and why
- Any result for Best K-Pop, Video of the Year, or any other 2026 VMA category. This piece covers Best Pop only.
- Any streaming, chart, or sales figures for "Dream." Our source material covers the award result and ceremony record, not commercial performance.
- Any claim about why Asian acts have won this category only twice in 17 years — audience voting patterns, genre classification, and release-timing all plausibly matter, and our two sources don't let us separate them.
- Any forecast about Lisa's or BLACKPINK's future award prospects. A 17-year count is a history, not a prediction.
Written from the same data
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