Stray Kids Join BTS in Sitting Out Grammy Awards — SkimNews
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- Stray Kids let the Aug. 21 submission deadline for the 69th Grammy Awards pass without entering any music, agency JYP Entertainment confirmed Friday, offering no explanation for the decision.
- BTS announced in July it would not submit for Grammy consideration this year, stating its music should be "heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language."
- All eight Stray Kids members — Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin, and I.N — received invitations to become Recording Academy voters this year, a role that lets them shape nominees and winners even while keeping their own music out of the running.
- Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. confirmed Thursday that the new Asian Pop category will proceed for the 2027 ceremony, noting the Academy received a "robust" number of submissions despite candid opposition to the category.
- BTS has earned five Grammy nominations without a win, while K-pop's clearest breakthrough came earlier this year when "Golden" from the film "KPop Demon Hunters" took best song written for visual media.
- At an Aug. 6 press conference in Seoul, Stray Kids members deflected Grammy questions, with Hyunjin saying the group has never chased an award or chart milestone and pointing to fan satisfaction as their real benchmark.
- Nominees for the 69th Grammy Awards are scheduled to be announced Nov. 16, with the ceremony set for Feb. 7, 2027.
Why it matters: Two of K-pop's biggest acts are rejecting a category created specifically to recognize their genre, and the Recording Academy is proceeding anyway — meaning the first Asian Pop nominees will be decided without the genre's flagship acts in the running, even as Stray Kids members now hold voter status.
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