”Let’s Redo it!” Jimin leading on a fan poll makes ARMY upset?

On April 9, a Twitter user initiated a fan song contest featuring over 60 BTS songs, including members’ solos. In the first round, with solo songs were matched against BTS group songs, it was only Jimin’s songs leading in his polls to attract the attention and discontent of some fans. Some even admitted that they were only cheering for a specific group song because it was up against one of Jimin’s.

With the second round holding the same results, ARMY couldn’t hold their frustration, prompting calls for a redo of the poll. Some fans alleged that Jimin’s solos had unfairly dominated the poll, suggesting that Jimin wouldn’t have been leading if it were solely up to ARMY’s preferences. The creator of the fan poll page, who had previously asked for Jungkook’s solos to join the poll because they didn’t want his songs to lose, suddenly decided to exclude solo tracks from the competition altogether, claiming it wasn’t because of Jimin leading, but due to the hate they were receiving.

However, the creator had retweeted comments in favor of other members’ solos against the group songs, and only reposted comments of who couldn’t explain Jimin’s leading position. This raised doubts about the creator’s motives and whether the decision to exclude solo tracks was truly unbiased.

This incident isn’t the first time ARMY twitter has been unhappy with Jimin winning a poll. In 2021, a similar poll was deleted after Jimin emerged as the winner. Some fans speculate that the animosity towards Jimin’s success, whether in silly polls or in music, could be linked to the large number of Taekook shippers in the fandom, who see Jimin as an obstacle in their favorite members’ fictional love story.

All three of Jimin’s songs present in the polls—Lie, Like Crazy, and Serendipity—were leading the contest. With consistent vote through the next rounds, it would eventually have been two Jimin songs against each other. This would have given the singer not only the top stop, but the 2nd and 3rd place too, highlighting the power of Jimin’s own fandom who previously this year won the title Fandom of the Year on Debame.

Is Army’s unfair treatment of some members fracturing what was the biggest fandom in the world? Are now members’ own fandom strong and organised enough to take over Army’s own initiatives?