A former managing editor of the Grammy Awards website has spoken out about The Recording Academy, which organises the annual music awards show, and how it pushed back on featuring BTS, arguably the biggest boyband in the world right now.

Ms Rachel Brodsky, who helmed the website from 2018 to 2020, wrote on Twitter on Monday: "BTS was such a pain point when I edited Grammy.com. Any post about them did epic numbers and reflected where music's going, etc. But the RA board, they really pushed back on our writing about BTS. For reasons I never fully understood, but seem obvious in retrospect."

Her tweet comes one day after the awards were handed out and BTS, which were nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for their English hit Dynamite, were left empty-handed. The award went to Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande for Rain On Me.

Fans expressed that the loss smacked of racial bias, even though the band took it graciously.

A story on Refinery29, titled The Grammys Used BTS As Eye Candy And Everyone Saw Right Through It, started trending on social media after it was posted on the American entertainment and lifestyle website on Monday. It has even been translated into Korean and shared widely.

"The Grammys kept teasing that BTS' stage would be 'up next', but they were one of the very last groups to perform during the 3.5 hour broadcast," wrote Refinery 29's Natalie Morin.

"It wasn't hard for fans and critics to see exactly what the Grammys were up to - milking BTS' massive viewership power for all it was worth - and many were not happy about it."

Billboard's K-pop writer Jeff Benjamin also spoke up on Twitter on Tuesday, revealing that many publications "turned down or wanted to heavily alter stories about BTS".

But BTS got the last laugh. A live-stream of them celebrating after the event has so far garnered more than 11.8 million views, compared with the 8.8 million who tuned in to watch the Grammys.