BTS, the South Korean septet that has become a global cultural phenomenon, will not participate in the 2027 Grammy Awards. In a coordinated Instagram statement, each member wrote: “We have decided not to enter the Grammys this year.” The message, translated from Korean, added: “I hope that music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language.”
The boycott is a direct response to the Recording Academy’s creation of a new category for Best Asian Pop Music Performance, announced earlier this year. Academy president Harvey Mason Jr. justified the addition by saying the music community wanted “more opportunities to celebrate different and new genres of music.” But many artists and fans see it differently: as a way to shunt non-English-language acts into a separate, less prestigious category, effectively barring them from the main awards.
BTS has been nominated for five Grammys but has never won. The group’s absence from the 2027 ceremony is a significant blow to the awards, which have long struggled to reflect the global diversity of popular music. The new Asian pop category requires “meaningful use” of an Asian language, which would have excluded BTS’s recent album Arirang — a chart-topping success in South Korea, Japan, the UK, and the US — because most of its tracks are in English.
Fans, known as ARMY, have rallied behind the decision. One wrote on social media: “The gag is BTS knew they would’ve had a near guaranteed Grammy win with this new Asian pop category but understand that cosigning this category wld mean that ultimately asian language acts would be gatekept out of the main/general categories.” Another commented: “Watching BTS go from wanting a Grammy more than anything to realizing they’re bigger than the Grammys.”
A wider debate on cultural gatekeeping
The controversy echoes long-standing criticisms of the Grammys for sidelining non-English music. The addition of a Best Latin Song award in recent years has similarly been accused of creating a separate track for Latin artists rather than integrating them into the main categories. European audiences, accustomed to a multilingual music landscape, may find the US-centric approach particularly anachronistic.
BTS’s decision also highlights the growing power of artists from outside the Anglosphere. The group’s album Arirang, released in March, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, the UK Official Albums Chart, and several other national charts. Their global reach now rivals that of any Western act, making the Grammy boycott a statement about the awards’ relevance in a truly globalised music industry.
Some European artists have also voiced support for BTS. French singer and producer Christine and the Queens, who has collaborated with Asian musicians, called the new category “a step backward” in an interview with Le Monde. Meanwhile, the debate has sparked broader conversations about how awards shows can fairly represent diverse musical traditions without resorting to segregation.
The Recording Academy has not yet responded to BTS’s boycott. But the move is likely to intensify pressure on the organisation to rethink its category structure. For now, BTS’s message is clear: they will not accept a prize that they believe diminishes the value of music made outside the English-speaking mainstream.
