Okay-pop group BTS introduced Wednesday that it’s going to not submit its music for the 2027 Grammys in co-ordinated Instagram posts shared on every of the seven members’ accounts.
“We have now determined to not submit our music to the Grammys this yr. We hope music could be heard and liked as music itself, relatively than being divided by area or language. Thanks to ARMY and everybody who has all the time been with us,” a translated model of the assertion reads, in line with The Related Press.
The announcement follows a virtually four-year hiatus whereas members accomplished their necessary army service, and a record-breaking return, with the band’s fifth studio album Arirang topping the Billboard 200 after reaching the most important first-week gross sales of the yr.
Their album additionally broke data on Spotify, turning into the most-streamed album debut of 2026, in line with Selection, setting Grammy buzz in movement.
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Final week, Forbes revealed a narrative suggesting the band might have its largest Grammy yr but because of Arirang and the introduction of a brand new Greatest Asian Pop Music Efficiency class introduced final month by the Recording Academy.
The album’s lead single, Swim, which went to primary within the U.S., was additionally a predicted contender for tune of the yr; nonetheless, it could have been excluded from the Asian pop class as a result of its lyrics are in English. The class specifies that nominated songs have to incorporate “significant use of a number of Asian languages.”
Greater than 80 per cent of the lyrics on Arirang are sung in English, the BBC reported.
BTS’s assertion outlining its choice to not submit its music for 2027 was written in Korean.
The introduction of the brand new award class led to strategies that, as an alternative of celebrating Asian artists, it units them aside and strikes the goalpost forward of a yr when BTS appeared poised to win in established classes.
South Korean boy band BTS accepts the Artist of the Yr Award on stage in the course of the American Music Awards on the MGM Grand Backyard Enviornment in Las Vegas on Might 25, 2026.
VALERIE MACON / AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. stated the Recording Academy’s choice to introduce new awards spoke to “the breadth of right this moment’s music trade and the various genres, crafts and creators shaping it.”
“We’re excited to see these updates come to life within the yr forward as we have fun the music people who find themselves driving music ahead,” he continued.
BTS has by no means gained a Grammy, although it has been nominated for 5: thrice in one of the best pop duo/group efficiency class in addition to album of the yr (for its contributions to Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres) and greatest music video for But to Come, and was the primary ever Okay-pop band to obtain a nomination.
No Okay-pop act had ever gained a Grammy earlier than this yr, when Golden from the Netflix animated movie KPop Demon Hunters took residence the trophy for greatest tune for visible media.
It capped a extremely seen night time for Okay-pop on the Grammys — an establishment the place the style has lengthy been undercelebrated regardless of its huge worldwide following.
— with recordsdata from The Related Press
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