BTS Declines Submission for 2027 Grammys, Stating “Music Should Not Be Divided by Language”

The group BTS officially announced its decision to refuse submission for the 2027 Grammys. On July 29, all seven members stated through their respective social media accounts that they had decided not to enter this year’s Grammys competition. They explained their stance by saying they hope music can be heard and appreciated as art in itself rather than being categorized by region or language.

BTS’s boycott is interpreted as a reaction against the newly created “Best Asian Pop Music Performance” category at the American Grammys. The new category introduced by the Recording Academy includes popular music genres from Asia such as K-pop, J-pop, and C-pop. Some have expressed concern that creating a separate category for K-pop, which already holds strong competitiveness in the global music market, could instead act as a barrier to entry into the main categories.

By declining to submit this time, BTS has excluded their fifth studio album “ARIRANG,” released in March, along with its tracks, from consideration by the Grammys jury. “ARIRANG” reached number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, the main album rankings list, upon release, while its Title Track “SWIM” climbed to number one on the main singles chart, the Hot 100.

Harvey Mayson Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, expressed his view on BTS’s decision by saying, “We respect their choice, but we feel there might be some misunderstandings, so we want to clarify.” He explained, “The Asian Pop category was created to celebrate the depth, diversity, and remarkable growth of pop music that originated in Asia. More categories mean more artists’ works can receive recognition, and this is meant to expand the scope of those who are honored, not to divide artists.”

Mayson also emphasized that submitting music under genre categories does not exclude entries from main categories such as “Record of the Year,” “Album of the Year,” and “Song of the Year.” He added, “Recognition between genre categories and the main fields is not mutually exclusive, and artists can absolutely pursue both.”

The relationship between BTS and the Grammys has been complex. From 2021 to 2023, they were nominated for the Grammys for three consecutive years, receiving nominations in the “Album of the Year” category (for their contribution to Coldplay’s “Music of the Spheres”) and the “Best Music Video” category (“Yet to Come”). However, they have never won an award. This year, “Golden” from Netflix’s animated series *KPop Demon Hunters* secured K-pop’s first Grammy win in the “Best Visual Media Song” category.

This is the first time BTS has explicitly stated its intention to refuse submission to the Grammys. Previously, there were only discussions surrounding their conservative judging structure and perceived barriers for non-English speaking artists, even though they were nominated without winning. The impact of this boycott on whether other K-pop artists will submit to the Grammys is also a topic of interest.