All seven members of BTS posted identical statements to their individual Instagram accounts on July 29, announcing that the group will not submit its comeback album “Arirang” for consideration at the 69th Grammy Awards scheduled for February 2027. The decision arrived one month after the Recording Academy confirmed that the 2027 ceremony would include a new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category for the first time. Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. responded the following day, calling himself “saddened” by the group’s choice while defending the new category as a celebration of Asian artistry rather than a tool of division.
- BTS stated: “We have decided not to submit for Grammy consideration this year. We hope our music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language.”
- “Arirang,” released March 20, 2026, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 641,000 first-week units, the largest opening week for a group album in more than a decade.
- The album is BTS’ first full-length release since all seven members completed mandatory South Korean military service, and is accompanied by an 85-date world tour that began in April.
- BTS has received five Grammy nominations across four years, including three consecutive Best Pop Duo/Group Performance nominations, without winning.
- The new Asian Pop Music Performance category requires “meaningful use” of an Asian language; “Arirang” is predominantly sung in English, which may have made it ineligible for the new category regardless of BTS’ submission decision.
- The Recording Academy announced five new categories on June 16, including Best Asian Pop Music Performance and Best Latin Song, both of which have drawn criticism for potentially segregating non-Western artists from general field competition.
The Statement and What It Did Not Say
BTS did not explicitly name the new Asian Pop category as the reason for declining to submit. The group’s statement focused on a broader principle: the desire for music to be evaluated on its own terms rather than sorted by geography or language. That framing, however, landed in a context that made the subtext clear. The Recording Academy had announced the Asian Pop category just six weeks earlier, on June 16, as part of a package of five new awards. The timing of BTS’ announcement, coming during the open submission window that began July 7, positioned the decision as a direct response.
The Recording Academy’s response came the following day. Mason Jr. acknowledged the decision with a statement that balanced respect for BTS’ choice with a defense of the institution’s direction. He stated that the Asian Pop category was “created to celebrate the depth, diversity, and excellence” of Asian pop artistry and insisted it was “never to divide.” He also clarified that submitting music in a genre-specific category does not disqualify an artist from competing in General Field categories such as Album of the Year or Record of the Year, a point that addressed a common misconception about how Grammy categorization works.
That clarification, while technically accurate, did not fully resolve the concern BTS and its fan base, known as ARMY, raised. The issue is not whether an artist can be nominated in both a regional category and a general category simultaneously. The concern is whether the existence of a regional category creates institutional pressure for voting members to slot certain artists into those lanes rather than considering them alongside English-language peers in pop, rock, or general field races.
“Arirang” and the Language Complication
The new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category includes a requirement for “meaningful use” of an Asian language. That eligibility rule introduces an additional layer of complexity to BTS’ situation. “Arirang,” despite its title referencing one of Korea’s most iconic folk melodies, is predominantly sung in English. The album was produced with a roster of Western collaborators including Diplo, Flume, Ryan Tedder, Max Martin, and Kevin Parker, and its lyrical content is largely delivered in English with Korean passages woven through select tracks.
That language balance means “Arirang” might not have qualified for the Asian Pop category even if BTS had chosen to submit. The group’s earlier Grammy-nominated singles, “Dynamite,” “Butter,” and “My Universe” (with Coldplay), were all English-language tracks that competed in the general Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category. “Arirang” would have been a strong contender in those same general categories based on its commercial performance and critical reception.
The question BTS appears to be raising through its withdrawal is whether the creation of a dedicated Asian Pop category changes the calculus for how the Academy’s 15,000 voting members perceive and categorize K-pop releases going forward, even when those releases are predominantly in English and stylistically indistinguishable from mainstream Western pop.
Five Nominations, Zero Wins, and a Pattern
BTS’ Grammy history provides essential context for understanding the weight of this decision. The group received its first nomination in 2021, when “Dynamite” earned a nod for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. That nomination was followed by consecutive entries in the same category for “Butter” in 2022 and “My Universe” (with Coldplay) in 2023. A fourth nomination came in 2023 for “Yet to Come (The Most Beautiful Moment)” in the Best Music Video category. A fifth nomination arrived in 2024.
The group never won. Each loss added to a public narrative that BTS and its fans had been building for years: that the Recording Academy recognized K-pop’s commercial dominance enough to nominate it but not enough to award it at the same level as comparable Western acts. Jin addressed this tension in a Rolling Stone cover story earlier this year, explaining that the group’s return to a sound rooted in its Korean identity on “Arirang” was a deliberate creative choice. “I believed that our most beloved songs are our identity,” Jin said. “But not everyone felt that way, so after a lot of discussion, I was convinced by the opinion that our identity is in the music we used to make.”
That creative pivot toward a more identity-rooted sound, combined with the refusal to submit for Grammy consideration, positions “Arirang” as a statement album in a way that extends beyond its tracklist. The group appears to be signaling that it no longer needs the Grammy validation cycle to define its commercial or cultural success.
The Broader Category Debate
BTS is not the first act to push back against the Recording Academy’s category structure, but the group’s scale makes this moment different. “Arirang” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 641,000 first-week units. The accompanying Arirang World Tour, an 85-date global run that began in April 2026, is one of the highest-grossing concert events of the year. BTS is the rare act whose withdrawal from Grammy consideration carries commercial weight that the Academy cannot easily dismiss.
The new Asian Pop category sits alongside another new addition, Best Latin Song, in a group of five categories the Academy introduced for the 2027 cycle. Critics of both regional categories argue that they risk creating a framework where non-English-language music is celebrated in its own lane while remaining structurally disadvantaged in the general field races that generate the most industry visibility and prestige.
Mason Jr. pushed back on that framing, arguing that genre-specific categories expand opportunities rather than limit them. He pointed out that Latin music categories, which have existed at the Grammys for decades, have not prevented Latin artists from competing in and winning General Field awards. Whether that precedent translates to Asian Pop, a brand-new category without an established submission and voting culture, remains to be tested.
The 2027 Grammy Awards submission window is open through August 22. BTS’ absence from the ballot removes one of the year’s commercially dominant albums from contention and guarantees that the debut of the Asian Pop category will proceed without the genre’s most globally recognized act.
FAQs
Why Did BTS Decline to Submit for the 2027 Grammys?
BTS announced on July 29 that the group will not submit its album “Arirang” for Grammy consideration, stating: “We hope our music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language.” The decision is widely interpreted as a response to the Recording Academy’s introduction of a Best Asian Pop Music Performance category for the 2027 ceremony.
What Is the New Grammy Asian Pop Category?
The Recording Academy announced on June 16, 2026, that the 2027 Grammys would include a Best Asian Pop Music Performance category, requiring “meaningful use” of an Asian language. The category is one of five new awards added to the ceremony. Critics argue it risks segregating non-Western artists from general competition, while the Academy says it celebrates the depth of Asian pop artistry.
How Did “Arirang” Perform Commercially?
“Arirang” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 641,000 first-week units, the largest opening week for a group album in more than a decade. The album also reached No. 1 in South Korea, Japan, and the UK. BTS is currently midway through an 85-date world tour supporting the album.
Has BTS Ever Won a Grammy?
No. BTS has received five Grammy nominations, including three consecutive nods in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category for “Dynamite” (2021), “Butter” (2022), and “My Universe” with Coldplay (2023). The group has not won any of those nominations.
