BTS boycotts Grammy submissions, calling out language-based segregation of music

On July 30, BTS announced they will not submit music to the Grammy Awards next year. No globally influential K-pop group had publicly refused the ceremony before.

All seven members posted simultaneously on their individual Instagram accounts. "We have decided not to submit our music to the Grammy Awards this year," they wrote. "We hope our music can be heard and loved for the music itself rather than being divided by region or language."

Weeks earlier, the Recording Academy had announced a new category for next year's show: Best Asian Pop Music Performance. It covers works from K-pop, J-pop, C-pop, and other genres that meaningfully use at least one Asian language. There's a catch. Tracks where Asian languages appear only in scattered words or phrases, or where lyrics are predominantly in English, don't qualify.

BTS's current title track, SWIM, is composed entirely in English. The lead single from their fifth studio album ARIRANG hit number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Under the new rules, it cannot be entered in the Asian Pop category.

The Grammy history here matters. BTS received nominations for three consecutive years without a win, despite releasing global hits including Dynamite, Butter, and Permission to Dance. At the 66th Grammy nominations announcement in 2023, BTS, Stray Kids, and NewJeans all failed to receive nominations.

Grammy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. pushed back on the criticism. "The Asian Pop category was created to highlight the depth, diversity, and excellence of pop art coming from Asia," he said. "It is only to spotlight important artists, not to make distinctions."

Not everyone is buying that framing. One music industry official noted that K-pop acts have received recognition at the American Music Awards and the Billboard Music Awards, but the Grammy has "left a wound" despite K-pop's strong performance in the U.S. market. The official added that the Grammy—already a recurring target of criticism over white supremacy and discrimination against artists of color—may have "brought about even greater controversy" by establishing the Best Asian Pop Performance category in the first place.

(A new category designed to celebrate Asian artists that also bars their biggest English-language crossover hits from entry is, at minimum, a difficult sell.)