BTS have caused a storm by saying they will not submit any music for consideration at the 69th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2027, following the introduction of a new category specifically for best Asian pop music
BTS will not be appearing at the Grammy Awards next year after ruling themselves out of the nominations(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
This week the biggest band in the world ruled themselves out of the biggest music awards show in the world. In a joint statement BTS made it known to their combined 450 million-plus Instagram followers that they had no interest in competing at this year’s Grammys. The decision came days after the Recording Academy announced a new ‘Best Asian Pop Performance’ category, an award the group would have been overwhelming favourites to win. “We have decided not to enter,” each of the seven members posted. “I hope that music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language.” The united stance, posted in their native Korean, was a rallying cry to the Academy. Typically measured and respectful in tone from the group, yet the message hinted at something far more furious. The stance can only be taken as a sting at the Academy’s decision to pigeon-hole the band’s global success by their ethnicity, while allowing other artists dodge the same trap.
Historically, once the Grammys create a genre-specific category artists find it near impossible to win a mainstream prize. A dedicated lane keeps BTS out the running for the coveted ‘Big Four’ – Album, Song, Record and Performance of the Year.
Last year, Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny made history by winning album of the year for his record Debí Tirar Más Fotos, the first fully Spanish-language album to win the ultimate prize. In an irony difficult to ignore, this year the Recording Academy announced a Best Latin Song category for the first time ever. Picking up his gong, Bad Bunny said it was for “All the Latinos in the entire world and to all the artists who came before and who deserved to be on this stage receiving this award.” The quip followed his earlier criticism of the ceremony after discovering his 2023 performance was unceremoniously slapped with a ‘[SINGING IN NON-ENGLISH]’ banner for those watching at home. Tyler, the Creator famously slammed the Grammys’ use of the ‘urban’ category, calling it ‘a politically correct way to say the n-word.’ “It sucks that whenever we – and I mean guys that look like me – do anything that’s genre-bending or anything, they always put it in a rap or urban category.”
Tyler compared the Academy’s approach to giving your younger sibling an unplugged games controller to appease them while keeping them away from the real game. Following his comments, the Recording Academy phased out the word ‘urban’, renaming Best Urban Contemporary Album to Best Progressive R&B Album in response to criticism of an uncomfortable racial catch-all. Yet it’s clear the Grammys still have a long way to go. Academy president Harvey Mason Jr said the new Latin and Asian categories were to create ‘more opportunities to celebrate different and new genres of music.’
He then responded to BTS by expressing he was ‘saddened’ but that he ‘understood and respected’ their decision. “More categories mean more artists’ work is recognised. It’s never to divide, but to expand who is recognised,” he insisted. The optics are far more complicated. Asian pop artists have traditionally been ignored by the US-centric awards show – no K-pop act was even nominated until BTS. Yet even BTS have missed out on five Grammys in the three years they have been nominated, a record at odds with their status as the world’s biggest music act.
In 2019 they became the first group since The Beatles to earn three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart in less than a year. They are the most streamed act on Spotify with more than 48.5 billion cumulative streams and hold over 20 other Guinness World Records spanning music, engagement and streaming. Their dominance is beyond dispute, but of course, facts and figures alone don’t explain why BTS have become a cultural phenomenon. Unlike many of their peers, BTS have written and produced much of their own music since their debut, moving between pop, hip-hop, R&B, rock and electronic music. Even calling them “pop” feels reductive to anyone familiar with a catalogue that spans multiple genres.
As live performers, they deliver three-hour stadium shows with raw vocals and relentless choreography. I caught the band in Tottenham on their 88 date Arirang World Tour. Their two nights at White Hart Lane came as they hopped from Brussels to London to Munich to Paris in less than 18 days, all before heading to America for the FIFA World Cup Final Halftime Show – a mere day after their last European date. The tour was a celebration of BTS’ return to the spotlight after military service in South Korea. The initial concerts sold out within hours of going on sale, forcing promoters to add multiple additional dates. According to financial reports released by their label, ticket sales and merchandise generated a record 1.45 trillion Korean won (around $987 million) in quarterly revenue. In almost every measurable sense, BTS operate on a level reserved for only the very biggest names in music and even in that space they are breaking records, which is precisely why the Grammys’ decision feels so jarring. By placing global artists into ever more specific boxes, the Recording Academy risks reinforcing the barriers it claims to dismantle. Despite years of disappointment, BTS have embraced the Grammys, attending and performing three times – while never taking home an award.
Each of their performances have gone on to become the most-watched performances in the show’s history on YouTube, underlining the value the group brings to the ceremony itself. Clearly, the Grammys needs BTS far more than BTS need another award.
And their powerful omission statement, for themselves and the artists who will follow them, says more than any winner’s speech could.
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