In 2025, Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter won several major Grammys, including Best Country Album and the highest honor, Album of the Year. It was the first time Beyonce won AOTY, which says a lot about the Recording Academy and the Grammys. Surprisingly, Beyonce’s Grammy win for Best Country Album turned into the bigger “issue” for a lot of people, people who simply do not believe that Black folks belong in country music. Just after Beyonce’s historic Cowboy Carter wins, the Recording Academy split the country category in two: best contemporary country album and best traditional country album. “Traditional” in this case means affirmative-action Grammys for butthurt white artists.
Well, the country-album split wasn’t the only shenanigan from the Recording Academy. Last month, they announced a new category which seems like affirmative action for Kpop, one of the most popular music genres in the world. There’s now a “Best Asian Pop Music Performance” category. Guess who hates this? BTS, arguably the biggest Kpop group out there.
BTS will not submit its music for consideration at the 69th Grammy Awards, scheduled for Feb. 7, 2027, the group announced on Wednesday. All seven members – RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook – posted the same statement on their individual instagram accounts.
“We have decided not to submit for Grammy consideration this year. We hope our music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language. We thank Army and everyone who has always stood by us.”
The announcement lands just over a month after the Recording Academy unveiled a new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category. “This category recognizes artistic excellence in Asian pop music performances originating from or widely recognized within Asian markets, including but not limited to K-pop, J-pop and C-pop, with meaningful use of one or more Asian languages. Awards are presented to the performing artist(s),” the Academy’s description of the category reads.
Variety has reached out to the Recording Academy for comment.
BTS has been nominated for Grammys before, including in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and Best Music Video categories, but has never won. All seven members have been voting members of the Recording Academy since 2019.
This is so badass from them. The Recording Academy was trying to ensure that one of the most popular music genres got special attention and their own separate category, and BTS was like… we’re not a charity project, we’re global superstars and y’all are playing in our faces. The Grammys are going to be boycotted by Army, right?
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
