Band’s Statement and Concerns

Writing on Instagram, each of the South Korean group’s seven members said: “We have decided not to enter the Grammys this year, but I hope that music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language,” according to The Guardian.

The band were widely expected to be in competition for some of the Grammys’ major categories, including album of the year, after their comeback record, Arirang, became one of the year’s biggest-sellers. The lead single Swim, a US number one, was also predicted to be in contention for song of the year, according to the BBC.

New Grammy Category and Reactions

Under Grammy rules, songs nominated for the category must contain “meaningful use” of an Asian language. More than 80% of the lyrics on Arirang are sung in English, according to the BBC.

The introduction of the new award met with mixed reception in K-Pop spaces online. Many fans complained that, instead of celebrating Asian artists, the Grammys had pigeonholed them, according to the BBC.

The comments are a striking – if gently worded – rebuke of the Recording Academy’s new category announced last month. The decision to add the category was due to “our music community sharing with us that they felt they needed to have more opportunities to celebrate different and new genres of music,” Academy president Harvey Mason Jr said when announcing the Asian pop award, according to The Guardian.

That was perhaps unfortunate wording, given Asian and Latin pop markets are far from “new”: each command vast revenues and audiences, including in the US, after decades of maturity. There have therefore been fears in the Asian pop sphere that the category could end up ringfencing Asian pop artists away from contention in the top categories, according to The Guardian.

Previous Recognition and Impact

Asian pop artists have traditionally been ignored by the US-centric awards show, no K-pop act was even nominated until BTS in 2021. Golden, from hit film KPop Demon Hunters, won best song written for visual media, the first win for a K-pop act. Golden was also up for one of the “big four” prizes, song of the year, alongside another K-pop artist, Rosé, for her Bruno Mars duet APT. The latter was also nominated for record of the year and best pop duo/group performance but lost in all three categories to US or British artists, according to The Guardian.

The Recording Academy has not commented on BTS’s decision. The Guardian and BBC have requested comment. They were the first K-Pop band to receive a nomination at the Grammys in 2021, for Dynamite, their first song performed completely in English. All seven members have been voting members of the Recording Academy since 2019. They have performed on the Grammys stage several times, and picked up four additional nominations, including in the best pop duo/group performance and best music video categories, but have never won, according to the BBC.

They ended their statement with a message to their fans, known as the BTS Army. “Thank you to Army and everyone who is always with us,” the group said, according to the BBC.