All seven members of BTS posted identical Korean-language statements to Instagram on Wednesday, announcing they will not submit their record-breaking comeback album ARIRANG — or any other work — for consideration at the <a href="https://www.koreajoongangdaily.com/entertainment/btsnbsprejects-new-grammy-categories-wont-submit-for-awards-this-year/12797708″ rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>69th Grammy Awards. The move came exactly six weeks after the Recording Academy introduced a new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category that carries a language requirement making BTS’s two biggest English-language singles ineligible for the very award that appeared to be designed with the group in mind.
The statement, shared simultaneously by RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook, read in translation: “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.” The phrase “region or language” directly echoes the eligibility criteria in the Recording Academy’s new category.
New Rule, Same Result: BTS’s Lead Singles Still Left Out
The Recording Academy announced Best Asian Pop Music Performance on June 16, 2026, as one of five new categories for the upcoming 69th ceremony. Grammy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. described it as recognition for “one of the most significant and sustained forces in the global music industry.” But the category’s eligibility rule immediately drew scrutiny.
To qualify, a recording must feature what the Academy’s rulebook calls “meaningful use of one or more Asian languages” — meaning the language must “play a significant role within the song in bilingual or multilingual structures such that the recording is identifiable with that language.” Recordings performed entirely in English are explicitly ineligible. Unlike the Latin Grammy framework, which mandates that at least 60 percent of lyrics be in Spanish, Portuguese, or a native regional language, the Recording Academy published no percentage threshold for the new category, leaving the standard open to inconsistent application.
For BTS, the practical consequence is pointed: “Swim,” the lead single from ARIRANG, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is sung entirely in English. It cannot be submitted for Best Asian Pop Music Performance. Neither can the follow-up single “Normal,” also an English-language track. Both songs represent BTS’s highest-profile 2026 material — which means the category the Academy built for them cannot accommodate the music that defined their return, a gap that fan and industry commentary documented almost immediately after the category was announced.
The Album the Grammy Category Cannot Hold
ARIRANG, released March 20, 2026, is BTS’s first full-group studio album in nearly six years, following the completion of all seven members’ mandatory South Korean military service. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, earning 641,000 equivalent album units in its first week — the largest opening-week total for a group album since Billboard began tracking chart positions by units in 2014. It marked BTS’s seventh American chart-topper.
The album’s title references Arirang, the traditional Korean folk song widely regarded as the country’s unofficial national anthem, associated with themes of separation, perseverance, and return — a deliberate choice to frame the group’s comeback after its four-year hiatus as a homecoming with cultural weight.
ARIRANG‘s production credits span Diplo, Ryan Tedder, Kevin Parker, and BTS’s longtime collaborator Pdogg, blending hip-hop, alternative R&B, synth-pop, and traditional Korean musical influences across 14 tracks. Some of those tracks, including the Korean-language album opener “Body to Body,” contain enough Korean-language content to have qualified for the new Grammy category. BTS chose not to enter any of them.
“Not a Company-Level Boycott”: HYBE Breaks With the Decision
BTS’s label, HYBE, moved quickly to clarify that the withdrawal is the group’s own. “This is not a boycott at the company level,” a HYBE official said in a statement Wednesday. “If other artists under our agency wish to submit entries, we plan to proceed with the submissions as scheduled.”
HYBE separately framed the decision in industry terms: “It is difficult to accept that this Grammy screening change was made when BTS was most likely to win the main prize.” The label also offered an account of the group’s process: “BTS also thought about whether to participate until the last minute of this announcement, but they made this decision with the idea that a cautious move is necessary for the sake of the music industry and K-pop as a whole.”
Neither BTS nor HYBE has called on other artists to follow the withdrawal.
Five Nominations, No Wins — and a Pattern Critics Say Explains the Category
BTS became the first K-pop act to receive a Grammy nomination in 2021, when “Dynamite” earned a nod in Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. They received the same nomination in 2022 for “Butter,” and again in 2023 for “My Universe” — a collaboration with Coldplay — along with nominations for Best Music Video and Album of the Year (as featured artists on Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres). Five nominations. Zero wins.
That record exists alongside a pattern observers have documented across multiple Grammy cycles: a non-Western artist breaks through commercially and appears positioned to win a major General Field category, then the Academy introduces a new sub-category that routes future recognition into a parallel lane. The Academy split Best Country Album into traditional and contemporary categories after Beyoncé won for Cowboy Carter in 2025. It introduced Best Latin Song after Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos became the first Spanish-language album to win Album of the Year. Now it has created Best Asian Pop Music Performance in a year when BTS returned from a military-service hiatus to produce arguably the most commercially dominant album in the awards cycle. A June 2026 analysis in the New Statesman called it “how the institution performs inclusion without surrendering power: by expanding the margins while protecting the center.” Gold Derby’s music coverage put the critique more plainly: “Instead of a celebration, such categories are marginalization. Asian pop has historically been shunned by the Grammys. Until last year, K-pop, the most commercially successful subgenre in the United States, had only one act receive nominations.”
What “Segregation” Actually Means in Grammy Architecture
The structural argument BTS is making — and that its supporters are amplifying — rests on how the Grammy category system distributes prestige. Of the roughly 100 categories awarded annually, only six constitute the General Field: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist, Producer of the Year, and Songwriter of the Year. These are the awards that carry the highest cultural weight, are voted on by the entire Academy membership, and appear in the broadcast’s final hour.
Every other category, including Best Asian Pop Music Performance, sits in a genre field. Genre field winners are announced in a separate pre-telecast ceremony. A genre field award is genuinely prestigious within its community — but in the broader cultural economy of the Grammys, it does not carry the same signal as a General Field win. Critics argue that an artist competing primarily in a genre field is, in effect, competing in a separate tournament.
The African Music Performance category, introduced for the 66th Grammy ceremony in 2024, produced an immediate illustration of the same dynamic. When Tyla won Best African Music Performance for “Push 2 Start” at the 2026 ceremony, backlash about whether she was “African enough” erupted — demonstrating how a regional category enforces definitional borders that a general pop category would never impose.
For BTS, the concern is specifically about the language requirement. The category as written would exclude their most mainstream material — the English-language tracks that topped American charts — while potentially including Korean-language deep cuts that received far less commercial attention in the US market. That is, in effect, a rule that rewards artists for not crossing over, a structural problem that music industry analysts flagged almost immediately after the category was announced.
The Southeast and South Asia Problem
Critics have also noted that the new category’s framing — which explicitly mentions K-pop, J-pop, and C-pop — leaves South Asian and Southeast Asian music industries in definitional ambiguity. India’s thriving commercial music scene, and the rapidly growing pop industries in Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, are not named. As missingperspectives.com noted in June, the category risks “reinforcing a narrow Western understanding of Asian music, rather than celebrating the continent’s diversity.” One commentator called K-pop, J-pop, and C-pop “the ‘Palatable-East’ to the majority of the Western mainstream” — a phrase that captures the implicit editorial choice embedded in the category’s design.
What This Means for the Category Itself
Without BTS in the race, the inaugural winner will almost certainly be a less commercially prominent act in the US market. That is not an argument against those artists’ talent — but it does mean the category will debut in the shadow of its most prominent potential entrant’s public refusal to participate.
The Recording Academy had not publicly responded to BTS’s withdrawal as of Wednesday afternoon. The Grammy entry window remains open through August 28. Nominees for the 69th ceremony are expected to be announced November 16, 2026. The awards show is scheduled for February 7, 2027, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, airing on ABC.
BTS, meanwhile, is midway through its Arirang World Tour — 85 dates across 23 countries — and performed at the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final Halftime Show at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on July 19. The group has not ruled out submitting to future Grammy cycles, according to reporting from Variety.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did BTS withdraw from Grammy consideration?
BTS objected to the Recording Academy’s new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category, which requires “meaningful use” of an Asian language to qualify. The group’s two biggest English-language singles from ARIRANG — “Swim” (No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100) and “Normal” — are ineligible for the new category under that rule. BTS’s posted statement framed the decision as a matter of principle: that music should be “heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language.”
Has BTS ever won a Grammy?
No. BTS holds five Grammy nominations — three consecutive nominations for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (2021, 2022, 2023), plus Best Music Video and an Album of the Year nod as featured artists — but has never won a competitive Grammy. The withdrawal means they will not be competing at the 69th ceremony in February 2027.
What is the Best Asian Pop Music Performance Grammy, and why is it controversial?
It is a new category debuting at the 69th Grammy Awards that covers K-pop, J-pop, and C-pop recordings featuring “meaningful use” of an Asian language. Critics argue it functions as a structural detour that routes Asian artists away from the Grammy General Field — the six high-prestige categories like Album of the Year — and into a parallel lane where they compete only against each other, reducing their chances of the kind of general recognition that defines the show’s cultural stakes. Supporters say it represents overdue acknowledgment of a globally dominant genre.
Will other K-pop artists follow BTS’s lead and skip the Grammys?
BTS made no call for others to do so, and HYBE confirmed it will proceed with submissions for other artists on its roster. Whether acts like SEVENTEEN, aespa, or solo artists from HYBE and other labels choose to submit for Best Asian Pop Music Performance — or follow BTS in declining — remains an open question as the entry window runs through August 28.
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