Why BTS turned down the Grammy it once desperately wanted

"We still want to win a Grammy." (2021) vs. "We will not submit to the Grammys." (2026)

At a May 2021 press conference for the single "Butter" — BTS's second English-language single following the success of "Dynamite" — leader RM and Suga said: "We can't say winning a Grammy isn't a goal. We plan to give it our best shot."

Five years later, everything has changed. BTS recently announced it would not submit entries to this year's Grammys, rejecting America's most prestigious music awards. The group had just swept the Billboard main singles and albums charts with its fifth studio album "Arirang," released after all members completed their mandatory military service and reunited — yet it chose to opt out of the awards race entirely. The message was brief but unambiguous: "Music should be evaluated as music itself, not by region or language."

Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy that oversees the Grammys, issued a defensive statement saying he was "saddened but respected the decision," adding that the new "Best Asian Pop Music Performance" category was "designed to spotlight, not segregate" Asian artists, and that eligibility for the General Field awards remained unaffected.

When BTS indirectly signaled its Grammy boycott, the English-language pop music world joined Korean fans in closely analyzing the situation, while fellow artists voiced solidarity. The fandom ARMY mobilized in a coordinated streaming push, sending the "Arirang" B-side "Aliens" to No. 1 on the iTunes Top Songs chart in 78 countries. The track uses the metaphor of being outsiders — aliens — to explore the identity struggles and ambitions BTS has faced as Koreans in the global pop market. The controversy deepened when the Grammy website subsequently removed video footage of BTS's 2021 "Dynamite" and 2022 "Butter" performances.

The spark behind BTS's boycott and its fallout was the Grammy's announcement in June of a new category: Best Asian Pop Music Performance.

In creating the category, the Recording Academy said it was established "to honor excellence in Asian pop music — including K-pop, J-pop and C-pop — that meaningfully incorporates one or more Asian languages and is created by or recognized within Asia." The academy said it added the category in recognition of "the growing influence of Asian pop on the global music industry." The new award takes effect starting with the 69th Grammy Awards in 2027.

This is not the first time the Grammys have added a genre category. Lee Gyu-tag, a professor and director of the Global K-Center at George Mason University Korea, said the Grammys have historically added new genres when music outside the mainstream — like hip-hop or Latin pop — gained popularity. He said that if the Asian music addition is viewed as a natural extension of the attention K-pop has drawn, "one could argue there is no major controversy or problem."

New genres have been added steadily since the 1980s. The Best Latin Pop Performance category debuted at the 26th Grammy Awards in 1984. Best Reggae Recording was introduced in 1985 and later renamed Best Reggae Album in 1992. Hip-hop entered the fold in 1989 through the Best Rap Performance category, which was expanded with the addition of Best Rap Album in 1996. Best World Music Album was created in 1992 and rebranded as Best Global Music Album in 2021.

As Latin trap and reggaeton artists such as Bad Bunny dominated global charts, the Música Urbana category was introduced in 2022. In 2024, Best African Music Performance was added in line with the explosion of African music, including Afrobeats and Amapiano.

The Grammy's classification approach has shifted with the times. The 1980s saw genre categories emerge from the diversification of popular music; from the 1990s through the 2020s, the trend moved toward regional and geographic subdivisions.

The global music industry views the new Asian Pop category through a similar lens. Since the Grammy's announcement, a heated cultural debate has swept the international music world. The dominant criticism is that the category represents classic "genre dumping" — the practice of steering non-white artists away from mainstream competition and into genre- or region-specific categories. Critics warn that K-pop is set to follow the same path as Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny, all dominant mainstream forces who were nonetheless confined to R&B, hip-hop and Latin categories and denied General Field wins. British outlet NME and other foreign media have labeled the new category a "glass fence" blocking non-Western music from entering the mainstream.

Lee and other experts described the debate as one "with two perspectives — inclusion and separation." Lee said: "Genres like rock and jazz are distinguished by musical style and characteristics, but Latin pop and Asian pop carry racial and ethnic dimensions. The Grammy calls it inclusion, but the reason so many objections are being raised is that it leaves room for the interpretation that these genres are being separated into their own categories rather than treated as part of the mainstream."

The Grammys have faced criticism for their white-centric conservatism throughout their more than 60-year history. Placing non-white artists who had already conquered the mainstream into R&B, hip-hop or Latin categories instead of awarding them General Field titles has long been a source of controversy. In 2021, The Weeknd withdrew from Grammy consideration after being shut out of nominations, declaring "the Grammys are corrupt." Drake followed with a similar boycott the following year. Music Radar's pointed question — "Why is there an Asian Pop category but no European Pop?" — is rooted in precisely this history.

The creation of the Asian Pop category has drawn particular criticism of the Grammy's Western-centric classification system. Lee said: "The category of 'Asia' — encompassing Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia — is geographically larger than all of North America. The very idea of lumping that into a single genre is a bizarre act of categorization." Pop music critic Jeong Min-jae agreed, calling the concept of an African category and an Asian Pop category "categorically absurd." He said: "Asia is not just the Korea, China and Japan the Grammys mentioned — it includes the Philippines, Taiwan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. This is the West's characteristically shallow, philosophically vacant approach."

More neutral voices have also emerged. Pop music critic Lim Hee-yun said the Grammys appeared to have created the category "without much deep thought, as they have done before," and that it was likely "an industry-driven decision to respond to market expansion — similar to how the Latin pop category was created — rather than a deliberate attempt to exclude K-pop."

The category's vague language requirement for Asian-language content has generated both controversy and cautious optimism. The debate is further complicated by the fact that even globally successful acts like BTS and BLACKPINK have released music with a heavy proportion of English lyrics.

Lee said: "When language use is the criterion, BTS and BLACKPINK would find it difficult to win in the Asian Pop category. It could be read as a rule that excludes not only K-pop but also artists from Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere who have long released English-language songs for their domestic markets."

Even as the debate intensifies, there is broad agreement that the category could serve as a "ladder of opportunity" for many Asian artists.

Lim said the Asian-language requirement "works against BTS, but is advantageous for other K-pop groups and younger Asian artists like the Philippines' BINI — it creates the hope of becoming a Grammy candidate even if you write songs only in your native language." He added: "In a practical sense, a path has opened where the carpet of Asian Pop has been laid down the road BTS pioneered, making it easier for those who follow." Lee similarly said the Asian Pop category "creates an opportunity for K-pop artists as well as Japanese, Chinese and Indonesian artists to receive recognition and win awards."

After BTS's Grammy boycott, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. also addressed this point, saying the category was "not about separating Asian music, but about recognizing more artists," and that it had "no impact on eligibility for General Field nominations." Even so, two BTS performance videos were removed from the Grammy's official website.

"We hope music is heard and loved as music itself, not divided by region or language."

About a month after the Asian Pop category was announced, BTS stated its intention to decline Grammy submission — briefly and politely. The group never used the word "boycott," but the world already sees them as artists who act on their convictions.

K-pop has long pursued a range of strategies to cross the threshold of the English-language pop market, often called the "mainstream." Groups released English-language singles to target American radio, one of the most conservative gatekeepers in the industry. The effort paid off: BTS and its members reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, a feat no other K-pop group has replicated. In recent years, groups like Katseye and Dear Alice — built on the K-pop system — have also emerged on the scene.

BTS itself knocked relentlessly on the door of the pop market. An all-Korean group that debuted in 2013, it took just four years before international awards took notice. From 2017 to 2022, BTS won the Billboard Music Awards' Top Social Artist award for six consecutive years, until the category was discontinued. The group was a true pioneer — building a massive fandom not just across East Asia but in the United States and Europe.

The expansion of K-pop's territory was never simply about topping the Billboard charts or winning a Grammy. It was closer to an existential struggle to overcome the limits of a domestic market, and K-pop evolved by adapting to the world's largest music market.

BTS first appeared at the Grammys as a presenter in 2019, prepared a joint performance in 2020, and was nominated for three consecutive years from 2021 to 2023 — only to fall short each time. Now back with its fifth studio album "Arirang," the group has signaled a boycott by indirectly referencing the Grammy's new rules. Experts say the decision reflects a sophisticated reframing that blends principle with shrewd strategy.

Lee said: "The moment the Asian Pop category was created, BTS was trapped either way — winning would feel like receiving a special exhibition prize rather than a real award, diminishing its meaning, while losing would leave an equally bitter taste." He added: "Declining to submit was a brilliant strategy, because it shifted the conversation from 'whether BTS wins a Grammy' to 'what the award actually means.'"

For years, the question of whether BTS would win a Grammy had been the central preoccupation of the group, its fandom ARMY and the K-pop industry alike. From the moment BTS entered the Grammy orbit, the two became inseparable — and it was widely perceived, whether by choice or circumstance, as the group's ultimate goal. Lee noted this dynamic, saying BTS had "stepped out from under the pressure of being defined by the Grammy and taken the lead in a debate about what the award is worth." English-language pop media covering the boycott have largely led with an analysis of the Grammy's conservatism and the controversy surrounding the new Asian Pop category, rather than BTS itself.

Lim said the move was "a strategy of stepping off the race by pointing to the Grammy's complacency in creating the Asian Pop category — at a moment when the 'Arirang' album, released after a four-year absence, had little realistic chance of winning a General Field award."

Recording Academy member Gina Coda drew a line on social media, writing that the Best Asian Pop Performance category "is a newly created category and cannot be perfect from its very first attempt," and that "in many ways, this category was never meant for BTS to begin with."

She also expressed hurt that BTS's boycott had damaged the academy's efforts. "This award is decided by a group of music professionals who have thought deeply about cultural representation for Asian artists," she wrote, calling it "the result of years of work by many people to raise the visibility of Asian artists who had almost no presence within the Grammys — a step forward in the right direction." She then added: "But instead, we have been torn down by one of the biggest Asian acts."

BTS's declaration not to submit is not a rejection of the Grammys — it is a question directed at the way the Grammys classify and recognize music. A debate is already taking root: whether musical diversity is achieved by creating separate categories, or by competing and being judged on the same stage; and whether the standard for evaluating world music must remain centered on America or the West. Beyond that, a new conversation is beginning about how to define diversity and representation for K-pop, which has spent the past 30 years navigating the global market.

Lee said: "Since the late 2010s, the Grammy's authority has not been what it once was. The surge of criticism against the Grammys following BTS's withdrawal reflects the current state of an institution whose standing has eroded." He added: "This episode is a symbolic case showing that the influence of a group like BTS and the influence of the American music industry — as represented by the Grammys — are both in decline."