Grammy moves to overhaul Asian Pop category weeks after BTS boycott
Two weeks after BTS refused to submit music, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. announced plans to restructure the 'Best Asian Pop Music Performance' category.
BTS declared a boycott on July 29. Each member posted identical statements across social media: "We hope that music is heard and loved in its entirety rather than being divided by region or language." They would not submit to the February ceremony—a decision that blocked their fifth studio album ARIRANG, already in the Grammy pipeline.
On August 14, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. responded. "It has become clear that some artists feel that the Asian Pop category does not represent the music they worked so hard to create, regardless of our intentions," he said. "As someone from a music background, I accept this deeply." He pointed to precedent: "Over the past 6 years, the Recording Academy has shown it can move decisively and swiftly to meet the needs of the music community."
Emergency meetings followed. The Academy convened representatives from K-pop, J-pop, C-pop, and Indian music industries—including HYBE, BTS's agency. The full board and awards and nomination selection committees debated whether the category should exist at all and what rule changes might follow. Billboard reported the Academy could revise the Asian Pop category as early as next year's ceremony, an unusually fast turnaround for an organization managing over 100 award categories.
The Academy is also reviewing a broader overhaul of how Grammy categories get created in the first place. NYU professor Dan Charnas, writing in the New York Times, had called the category diversification "a malignant byproduct born from the record industry's historical racial segregation."
The online submission deadline for the 69th Grammy Awards—the 2027 ceremony—is August 21.
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