BTS boycotts 2027 Grammys over new Asian language category
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- BTS announced via a coordinated Instagram post — all seven members uploading identical statements — that they won't enter the 2027 Grammys, saying they hope music can be loved 'rather than being divided by region or language.'
- The Grammys' new best Asian pop music performance category requires 'meaningful use' of an Asian language, but more than 80% of BTS's comeback album Arirang is sung in English, and lead single Swim is entirely English.
- Arirang became one of the year's biggest-sellers and Swim reached US number one, positioning BTS as expected contenders for album of the year and song of the year in the general field.
- BTS earned their first Grammy nomination in 2021 for Dynamite (their first fully English song) and have received four additional nominations across pop duo/group performance and best music video — never winning.
- The band joins The Weeknd, Morgan Wallen, Frank Ocean, and Will Smith on a list of performers who have boycotted the Grammys; Drake called for the ceremony to be replaced in 2020, citing its habitual overlooking of Black artistry and rap.
- "Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters became the first K-Pop song to win a Grammy (best song written for visual media) in the most recent ceremony, but would also have been excluded from the new Asian Pop category because its lyrics are almost entirely in English.
Why it matters: BTS is the most prominent K-pop act to boycott the Grammys, joining The Weeknd and Drake. The boycott crystallizes the new category's core problem: it requires Asian-language lyrics, locking out crossover acts like BTS — and, as the most recent ceremony showed, even the first K-Pop song to ever win a Grammy. The Recording Academy, which just expanded its voting body to include members of Twice, Stray Kids, Enhypen, Seventeen, and others, has yet to respond.
