BTS to boycott 2027 Grammy Awards, will not submit music for consideration
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The announcement by BTS came as a surprise to many, given the group’s long pursuit of Grammy recognition.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Max Kim and Ben Sisario
- BTS announced they will boycott the 2027 Grammy Awards and not submit their music, protesting the new separate Asian pop category.
- The Recording Academy created the Asian pop category to recognise K-pop and other Asian music's global impact, but some see it as marginalising artists.
- BTS has been nominated five times without a win; their latest album Arirang will not be considered for any Grammy due to their boycott.
AI generated
SEOUL – K-pop supergroup BTS said they would not compete in the 69th Grammy Awards in 2027, a month after the organisation behind the awards show announced a new category for Asian pop.
“We have decided not to submit an entry for Grammy consideration this year,” the boy band’s seven members said in a statement written in Korean and posted on their individual social media accounts on July 29.
“We hope music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided into region or language.”
Neither BTS nor their record company Hybe commented further. But the move appeared to be a protest against the new category, Best Asian Pop Music Performance, which will be awarded for the first time at the next Grammys ceremony on Feb 7.
Harvey Mason Jr, chief executive of the Recording Academy, who is also a producer and songwriter, said in a statement: “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.”
BTS’ decision means their comeback album Arirang, which topped charts around the world after its release in March, will not contend for a Grammy.
Under academy rules, artistes or the companies that represent them must submit recordings to be considered.
In his statement, Mason added that submitting music to a genre category would not preclude an artiste from also submitting to the top categories like Record, Album or Song of the Year.
The academy announced the new Asian pop prize as a way to recognise the recent rise of K-pop, J-pop, C-pop and other styles as among “the most significant and sustained forces in the global music industry”, Mason said when the academy revealed the new award.
But some fans were quick to denounce the new category, saying it would effectively marginalise Asian performers and present a barrier to their being nominated in the top categories such as Record and Album of the Year.
K-pop has had a spotty record at the Grammys, despite its enormous popularity over the past decade.
BTS have been nominated for five Grammys but never won, and have appeared on the show three times.
At the most recent Grammys ceremony in February 2026, the Netflix animated phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters (2025) drove the first K-pop win, when the songwriters of the film’s breakout track Golden took home Best Song Written for Visual Media.
The debate over how race and language have affected Western attitudes towards K-pop has figured prominently in the arc of BTS’ career.
During the production for Arirang, the group’s members pushed back against pressure from producers to include more English-language lyrics for greater global appeal, according to a recent Netflix documentary.
The album, in the end, was released with far more English than Korean. NYTIMES
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
