K-pop powerhouse BTS said they will not submit their comeback album, “ARIRANG” or its songs for consideration at the forthcoming 2027 Grammy Awards.
All seven BTS members — RM, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, Jung Kook and Jin — shared the same note on July 29.
“We hope our music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language,” the coordinated message read. “We thank Army and everyone who has always stood by us.”
The July 29 announcement came just over a month after the Recording Academy announced five new Grammy categories, which include best Asian pop music performance, meant to celebrate releases across K-pop, J-pop, C-pop and beyond.
Some BTS fans, known as ARMY, viewed the new category as a racialized barrier for Asian performers.
BTS has never won a Grammy, though they have been nominated for five. Three times in the best pop duo/group performance category as well as album of the year, for their contributions to Coldplay’s “Music of the Spheres,” and best music video for “Yet to Come.”
In fact, no K-pop act had ever won a Grammy before this year, when “Golden” from the Netflix animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” took home the trophy for best song for visual media. It capped a highly visible night for K-pop at the Grammys — an institution where the genre has long been undercelebrated despite its massive international following.
In March, BTS returned after a nearly four-year musical hiatus. “ARIRANG,” the 14-track, critically acclaimed fifth studio album from the septet, served as both a reintroduction to the band after its members completed South Korea’s mandatory military service and as a keen reminder of their place atop popular culture conversation.
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. responded to the news on July 30.
“I am saddened to hear that BTS has chosen not to participate in the Grammy Awards process this year, but as a music creator, I understand and respect their decision,” Mason jr. wrote on the Grammys’ official Instagram page.
In his statement, Mason jr. said that the new category was created in order to celebrate more voices across the Asian music industry — not to separate those artists from other awards.
“I do want to clarify something that seems to be getting lost in the conversation. The Asian Pop category was created to celebrate the depth, diversity and extraordinary growth of pop artistry coming out of Asia,” he wrote. “More categories mean more artists’ work is recognized. It’s never to divide, but to expand who is recognized by our 15,000 Grammy voters.”
He added a reminder that submitting in a genre category — such as the new Asian pop award — does not exclude an artist from submitting to the general field categories like album, song and record of the year.
“Recognition in a genre category and recognition in the General Field are not mutually exclusive,” Mason jr. said. “An artist can absolutely pursue both.”
But that defense did not resolve the central objection from fans and critics. They noted that there is no equivalent Grammy category grouping British, French, German, and Italian performers together as “European pop.”
Western artists generally enter categories based on genre, craft or format. Asian artists were being grouped by continental origin and the use of Asian languages, regardless of the substantial cultural and musical differences among them.
For many BTS fans, the distinction exposed a familiar form of institutional racism: inclusion through segregation.
The problem was not that Asian music received an additional trophy. It was that the new trophy would become the place where Grammy voters directed Asian artists instead of recognizing them throughout the broader pop field and the ceremony’s most prestigious categories.
A category promoted as representation could function as a containment mechanism — recognition without full equality.
That interpretation drew strength from BTS’ history with the Grammys. The group became one of the most commercially powerful and culturally influential acts in the world, topped the Billboard charts, sold out major stadiums and repeatedly delivered marquee Grammy performances.
The Recording Academy benefited from the attention of BTS and its global fan base. Yet the group’s five nominations produced no wins, and BTS never received a nomination in the general-field categories that define the ceremony’s institutional hierarchy.
Fans saw a recurring message: BTS was global enough to demonstrate the international relevance, but not sufficiently accepted to be treated as an unqualified part of the pop establishment.
The new Asian pop category therefore appeared less like the removal of a barrier than the construction of a more decorative one. Critics connected the dispute to the recording industry’s long history of sorting artists of color into racialized categories.
Black musicians were historically confined to labels such as “race music” and later steered toward rap, R&B, and “urban” classifications even when their work crossed conventional genre boundaries.
Latin artists were often treated as a separate market rather than as central participants in American popular music. Such categories created opportunities for recognition, but they also allowed institutions to celebrate diversity without confronting exclusion from their most powerful spaces.
BTS refused that bargain. The group’s decision was especially consequential because it no longer depended on the Recording Academy for legitimacy. BTS and ARMY had already built a global system of distribution, communication, and audience mobilization capable of producing No. 1 records and sold-out stadiums without waiting for traditional American gatekeepers to grant entry.
That independence changed the balance of power. Earlier generations of artists often had to accept limited or segregated recognition because major broadcasters, labels, radio networks, and awards institutions controlled access to a mass audience.
BTS had already reached that audience directly. Refusing Grammy consideration did not make the group disappear. It made the Academy explain why one of the world’s largest musical acts found its framework unacceptable.
