BTS Members Declare Grammy Boycott: "We Hope Music Can Be Loved for Itself, Not Divided by Region or Language"

Protesting the establishment of the Asian pop category at the U.S. Grammy Awards, the group BTS has effectively declared a boycott of the Grammys.

BTS members expressed their intention not to submit their work for next year's Grammy Awards through their personal social media accounts on the afternoon of July 29.

The BTS members announced their boycott by stating, "We hope that music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language."

The members added in the post, "Thank you always to ARMY and everyone who is with us."

Previously, on June 17, the Recording Academy, which organizes the Grammy Awards, announced that it would add five new categories, including "Best Asian Pop Music Performance," starting next year.

According to the Grammy Awards website, the "Best Asian Pop Music Performance" category will award artists who originate from Asia or are locally recognized, and who make significant use of one or more Asian national languages, including K-pop, J-pop (Japanese pop music), and C-pop (Chinese pop music).

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. explained, "We established this category in recognition of the growing influence that Asian pop is having on the global music industry."

However, this decision has led to interpretations that the Grammys created the Asian pop category as a sub-category rather than the General Field—the main categories—effectively setting up a barrier to block K-pop stars from winning.

Until now, K-pop stars such as BTS and BLACKPINK's Rosé have challenged for Grammy wins, but have repeatedly tasted defeat.

BTS caused a sensation in the U.S. market by topping the Billboard single chart for the first time in K-pop history with "Dynamite" in 2020 and staying at number one for 10 weeks with "Butter" in 2021, but they did not win a Grammy.

Rosé was also nominated for a main category this year with "APT.", but fell short of winning.

This year, the OST "Golden" from the film K-Pop: Demon Hunters won a Grammy for the first time as a K-pop genre, but it was also not in a main category.

(Photo provided by BigHit Music, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.