BTS have withdrawn themselves from consideration at the 2027 Grammy awards, appearing to object to the Recording Academy's newly announced best Asian pop music performance category. In an Instagram statement, all seven members of the South Korean group said they hoped music could "be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language," a pointed but gently worded criticism of the new award, which was unveiled last month alongside a similarly regional best Latin song category.

The Recording Academy said the new categories responded to calls from the music community for more opportunities to celebrate emerging genres, though critics have noted that Asian and Latin pop are long-established, high-revenue markets rather than "new" scenes, fuelling concern that the category could sideline Asian artists from the main awards. BTS's Korean-language album Arirang would likely have qualified given the category's requirement for "meaningful use" of an Asian language, unlike recent hits such as Golden and Rosé's APT, which are largely in English. K-pop acts had a strong showing at this year's ceremony, with Golden winning best song written for visual media, but the group's withdrawal signals unease within the Asian pop sphere about the new classification ahead of the ceremony on 7 February in Los Angeles.