BTS Won’t Submit Comeback Album for Consideration at 2027 Grammys
BTS have announced they will not submit their comeback album, ARIRANG, for consideration at the 2027 Grammy Awards. All seven members shared the decision through individual Instagram Story posts on 29 July, stating in Korean that they wanted "music to be heard and loved by itself rather than being divided by region or language." The move is notable given the group's strong Grammy history and comes shortly after the Recording Academy introduced new award categories.
BTS has received five Grammy nominations over the past five years, including for "Dynamite" (2020) and "Butter" (2021), both in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category, as well as three nominations in 2023, one of which was for Album of the Year as featured guests on Coldplay's Music of the Spheres. Fans have speculated the withdrawal may relate to the Recording Academy's June announcement of five new categories, including Best Asian Pop Music Performance, which some see as potentially sidelining K-pop acts from broader pop categories. Online entry for the 2027 Grammys opened on 7 July and closes on 21 August, with nominees announced on 16 November and the ceremony held on 7 February.
In short
- BTS won't submit ARIRANG album for 2027 Grammy consideration
- Group cites wish for music to transcend region/language divides
- Decision follows Recording Academy's new Best Asian Pop Music category
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Supporters of BTS's decision argue that music should be judged on its own artistic merit rather than filtered through regional or linguistic categories that can end up narrowing how broadly an act's work is recognised. By declining to enter a system that has just introduced a separate Best Asian Pop Music Performance category, the group is seen as refusing to be siloed away from mainstream pop competition and reasserting that international artists deserve to compete on equal footing rather than be corralled into a niche, however well-intentioned that niche might be. This is framed as a matter of artistic integrity and self-determination for a group that has long resisted being reduced to a regional label.
The case against
Others contend that new dedicated categories such as Best Asian Pop Music Performance represent a genuine and hard-won expansion of Grammy recognition, created specifically because Asian and K-pop artists have often been overlooked in broader pop categories, and that opting out of the awards altogether risks being read as a rejection of that progress rather than a principled stand. From this perspective, staying engaged with the awards process, including any new categories, would let BTS use their considerable influence to help legitimise and elevate that recognition for the wider K-pop industry, whereas withdrawing entirely could inadvertently undercut the very visibility other Asian artists are still working to secure.
Explained simply
BTS is a seven-member South Korean boy band that has become one of the world's biggest music groups over the past decade, with a dedicated global fanbase. The Grammy Awards are the music industry's most prestigious honours, and being nominated or winning significantly boosts an artist's international profile and commercial success.
BTS has achieved notable success at the Grammys despite the group's origins outside the United States. Over the past five years, they received five Grammy nominations, including a nomination for Album of the Year in 2023 as featured artists on Coldplay's Music of the Spheres. This level of recognition at the Grammys typically encourages artists to continue submitting work for consideration.
The Recording Academy, which oversees the Grammy Awards, introduced five new award categories in June, including Best Asian Pop Music Performance. Some music industry observers and fans have suggested that this change may have prompted BTS's decision, as the new category could potentially shift K-pop acts away from competing in mainstream pop categories where they previously gained recognition.
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