The Recording Academy is revising its new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category after BTS declined to submit music for the 2027 Grammy Awards.
The Recording Academy has signaled it will revise its new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category, weeks after the K-pop group BTS announced it would not submit music for the 2027 Grammy Awards. The move follows a public dispute over whether the category recognizes Asian artists or separates them from the awards’ main fields.
The category was announced on June 16 as one of five new additions for the 69th Grammy Awards, bringing the total number of Grammy categories to 100. According to the Recording Academy’s published description, the award recognizes artistic excellence in Asian pop performances originating from or widely recognized within Asian markets, including but not limited to K-pop, J-pop, and C-pop. Eligible recordings must also feature meaningful use of one or more Asian languages.
That language requirement quickly became the center of the controversy. Critics argued that defining an award through geography and language did not reflect a music market in which artists increasingly release multilingual records and compete internationally. Some also questioned whether steering globally popular acts into a regional category could keep them out of the awards’ biggest fields rather than opening a path into them.
BTS Grammy Boycott Sparks Recording Academy Review
On July 29, all seven BTS members posted the same Korean-language statement to their Instagram accounts, saying they had decided not to submit their music this year. They wrote that they hoped music could be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language. The decision meant their chart-topping comeback album Arirang would not be entered for consideration. The group did not name the new category directly, but the statement arrived just over a month after it was announced.
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. responded quickly. He said he was saddened by the group’s decision but respected it as a fellow music creator. He also defended the category, saying it was created to celebrate the depth and growth of pop artistry coming out of Asia, and clarified that entering a genre category such as Asian Pop does not exclude an artist from the General Field awards, including Record of the Year, Album of the Year, and Song of the Year. He added that a specific recording can only compete in one performance category, though the same act can be nominated in several with different songs.
Grammys Revise Best Asian Pop Music Performance Category
In a follow-up statement on August 14, Mason acknowledged the criticism more directly. He said it had become clear that some artists felt the category did not represent the music they work hard to create, and that as a musician he took the concern seriously. He noted the Academy has shown over the past six years that it can act decisively when changes are needed.
Mason and other Grammy leaders spent two weeks in talks with musicians, labels, and managers across K-pop, J-pop, C-pop, and Indian music, including BTS’s label HYBE, according to Variety. The Academy’s full Board of Trustees and its Awards and Nominations Committee were brought in to shape the category further and to review the process for introducing new awards.
The timeline is tight. Entries for the 69th Grammy Awards close on August 21, first-round voting begins on October 12, nominations are set for November 16, and the ceremony is scheduled for February 7 in Los Angeles.
BTS has received five Grammy nominations over its career without a win, starting with Dynamite in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category in 2021. Earlier this year, Golden from the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack, performed by the fictional trio HUNTR/X, became the first K-pop song to win a Grammy, taking Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 68th ceremony.
