BTS Deliver Incendiary 'Fake Love' Live Debut On Billboard Music Awards: Watch

LAS VEGAS, NV - MAY 20: Musical group BTS perform onstage during the 2018 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 20, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)

BTS visited the 2018 Billboard Music Awards on Sunday night, where they predictably took home the Top Social Artist Award for the second year in a row. The live audience shared the same excitement as the group's devout Twitter following when they delivered an incendiary performance of their new single, "Fake Love."

Awards show host Kelly Clarkson introduced the "biggest boy band in the world," wearing huge pink earmuffs to dull the audience's hysterical screams. The applause swelled even more as the seven band members lurched across the stage one by one at the beginning of the track, which serves as the lead single off their new album, Love Yourself: Tear.

The minimalist stage design shrouded BTS in thick fog and blue and purple lights, allowing their gargantuan hooks and expert choreography to shine. The band members bounded effortlessly across the stage as they alternated between percussive raps and cavernous pop melodies. The septet exhorted the audience to sing the choruses with them, and they delivered with gusto — when they weren't too busy weeping or dancing with abandon.

BTS beat out fellow pop superstars Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato and Shawn Mendes to snatch the Top Social Artist crown, a fan-voted category. They earned the same honor last year over many of the same nominees, but Sunday marked their first performance on the awards show, as well as the first-ever Billboard Music Awards performance by a Korean artist.

Awards show performances can work wonders for artists looking to reach the next level of superstardom — not that BTS needed any help. Love Yourself: Tear set a pre-order record in South Korea of 1.44 million copies, and "Fake Love" sits at No. 14 on Spotify's Global Top 50 chart. Its accompanying video racked up 41 million YouTube views in its first 24 hours, the best debut ever for a K-pop artist.

BTS will perform "Fake Love" again on Friday when they return to The Ellen DeGeneres Show. If anything, these two performances should drum up even more excitement for their fall world tour, which includes 14 sold-out North American arena shows. The past three days have been a whirlwind for the K-pop sensations, but their victory lap has just begun.

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