Fresh off the biggest album week for a group in over a decade, BTS has announced it won’t submit music for the 69th Grammy Awards, a move widely read as protest against the Recording Academy’s new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category.
BTS announced Wednesday that it won’t be submitting any music for consideration at the 69th Grammy Awards, set to air in February 2027.
The statement, shared through the Instagram Stories of all seven members, read: “We have decided not to submit our music to the Grammys this year,” adding, “We hope music can be heard and loved as music itself, rather than being divided by region or language.” The group thanked its fandom, ARMY, and supporters worldwide in the same statement.
Why this decision was made
The decision comes weeks after the Recording Academy added Best Asian Pop Music Performance, one of five new categories announced for the upcoming ceremony. The Academy describes the category as recognising excellence in Asian pop music originating from or widely known within Asian markets, with meaningful use of one or more Asian languages, covering K-pop, J-pop, C-pop, and related styles.
The backlash was immediate. Much of the criticism argued that globally successful Asian artists should compete more frequently in both general and genre-specific categories, rather than being funnelled into a single dedicated regional category. A few see it as a stable, guaranteed entry point into the Grammys for Asian artists. A significant part of the backlash centred on the sense that the category functions less as recognition and more as a consolation placement, keeping acts like BTS out of the main pop field altogether.
More from LifestyleBTS has picked up three consecutive nominations for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance between 2021 and 2023, for “Dynamite,” “Butter,” and the Coldplay collaboration “My Universe,” without a single competitive win among them. This year would have marked their first eligibility window since returning from military service.
The record year behind the decision
The timing makes the protest land harder, because BTS is coming off arguably its biggest commercial year yet. ARIRANG, released March 20 as the group’s comeback album following military enlistment, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 641,000 equivalent album units in its first week, including 532,000 in pure sales, the biggest sales week for a group album in over a decade.
Physical sales carried much of that number: 516,000 physical copies moved across 17 vinyl editions and 9 CD versions, with vinyl alone accounting for 208,000 sales, the sixth-biggest vinyl sales week of the modern chart era. Only One Direction’s Midnight Memories, back in 2013, has sold more in a single week.
The album’s lead single, “SWIM,” debuted at number one on the Hot 100, BTS’s seventh chart-topper, while 13 tracks from the album charted simultaneously, pushing the group’s career Hot 100 total to 39 songs. On streaming, the album pulled in 110 million first-day plays on Spotify, with all 14 tracks taking the top 14 spots on the platform’s Global Daily Top Song chart.
What’s next
BTS is currently midway through the ARIRANG World Tour, having just wrapped the European leg, with the Paris stop alone drawing a combined attendance of around 720,000 across its run.
Just days after that European close, the group took the stage at the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final halftime show on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, performing their 2020 hit “Dynamite” as part of an 11-minute set shared with Madonna, Shakira, and Justin Bieber. The performance marked the first time in the tournament’s 96-year history that a World Cup final has featured a halftime show at all, with BTS appearing in matching red, white, and black outfits for the occasion.
The group now resumes the tour’s US leg starting August 1, back at the same MetLife Stadium where the halftime show took place, before moving on to Foxborough, Baltimore, Arlington, Toronto, and Chicago through August.
