(CNN) — BTS will not submit music for consideration at next year’s Grammy Awards, members of the K-pop supergroup announced Wednesday, a little over a month after the Recording Academy confirmed that the 2027 ceremony will include an Asian pop music performance category for the first time.
“We have decided not to submit to the Grammys this year,” the band said in a statement shared on Instagram by all seven members, adding: “I hope that music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language.”
Grammys CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said in a statement to CNN: “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.”
He said that artists who submit music in a genre category, such as Asian pop, can also submit in the general field categories, such as Record of the Year.
Mason Jr. added: “The Asian Pop category was created to celebrate the depth, diversity and extraordinary growth of pop artistry coming out of Asia. The spirit of this new category is to shine a dedicated spotlight on these important artists.”
BTS have enjoyed massive success since forming in 2010. They picked up the Billboard Music Award (BBMA) for Top Social Artist five times between 2017 and 2021, were named Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards in 2021 and 2026, and became the most awarded group in BBMA history in 2022.
But some fans fear the introduction of an award defined by geography minimizes the value of artists’ work.
BTS “incapsulate everything I love about music,” Will Scragg, 27, told CNN. The English superfan has seen the band twice this summer — once in his hometown of London and again traveling overseas to Munich.
“I really appreciate the amount of effort they put into everything. They truly love performing, and witnessing all of that live is such an amazing and worthwhile experience.”
Scragg supports BTS’ decision to abstain from Grammy consideration — despite admitting he had expected the band to rack up a number of Grammy nominations this time.
Their sixth Korean-language album, “Arirang,” stormed the international charts when it was released back in March, debuting at number 1 on the Billboard 200 and reaching the top spot in 23 countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.
Scragg said he was “disappointed, and a little confused” when he heard the Grammys planned to launch an Asian music category.
“I feel like it’s a way to keep BTS out of the main, more prestigious, categories,” Scragg explained. “It feels like it’s a way to sideline Asian artists.”
Scragg said he recognizes that narrower categories like the Asian award can be a great way for lesser-known artists to receive attention on a global stage. But he argues that BTS has already exceeded that level and said he respects the band for their dignified stance.
Scragg is not the only fan who thinks the decision is rooted in exclusion.
“I believe that the Grammys need artists like BTS to remain relevant,” Eleri Williams, 22, from Wales told CNN.
Williams, who has seen the band on 10 occasions, including in Seoul, Las Vegas and Paris, described an appreciation for the music shared by fans across the globe, even though many do not speak Korean, the language in which many of BTS’ songs are sung.
“I think that the purpose of music is to bring people together, and this is just another form of segregation,” she added.
Still, categories determined by culture or location are not unusual at the Grammys. Awards for Best Latin Jazz Album, Best Tropical Latin Album and Best African Music Performance are given out every year.
According to the rules and guidelines published ahead of the 69th Grammy awards in February next year, a song is eligible in only one performance category in any given year.
So, if BTS were to enter a song into the Best Asian Pop Music Performance category, they could not also enter that same song into the wider Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category — in which they were nominated in 2021 and 2022 — and vice versa.
‘Separate box’
Matthew Pellegrino, a music teacher at NYU Steinhardt and a K-pop expert, told CNN the Asian music category is “unnecessary.”
“It’s veiled under the guise of good intentions but all it does is place Asian artists into a separate box that makes them unequal to mainstream American pop artists,” he said.
Pellegrino said he believes an Asian music category is inherently flawed because the Asian region is producing a wealth of music that is diverse and not easily comparable.
“Where is this arbitrary line drawn, and why?” Pellegrino said. “Bruno Mars has Asian heritage, should he be in the Asian Grammy category? Or perhaps the Latin Grammy category?”
BTS’ return to the charts in the spring was highly anticipated, as the performers had previously taken a four-year hiatus to enable all seven members to complete South Korea’s mandatory military service.
The-CNN-Wire
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