BTS Grammy withdrawal: Protest or surrender?

Members of South Korean boy group BTS each took to social media to declare they won’t be submitting their latest album, “Arirang,” for Grammy consideration.

“We have decided not to submit for Grammy consideration this year. We hope our music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language. We thank ARMY and everyone who has always stood by us,” shared RM, Jin, Suga, J-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook on their respective Instagram stories.

The decision is likely a response to The Recording Academy’s move to add a Best Asian Pop Music Performance category for the 2027 Grammy Awards.

Music without borders, supposedly

Just last month, the Grammys came under fire for introducing five new categories to the yearly award show: Best Asian Pop Music Performance, Best R&B Collaboration or Duo/Group Performance, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, Best Traditional Folk Album, and Best Latin Song.

Grammys CEO Harvey Mason Jr. described the added categories as opportunities to “give even more people a place for their music to be respected, heard, and evaluated.”

“Asian pop music is one of the most significant and sustained forces in the global music industry. Its impact is well-established, and it continues to grow and shape music culture around the world. There’s so much music coming out of that region, between J-pop, Mandopop, and K-pop, and I’m so excited to recognize its impact in next year’s show,” he added.

Mason Jr. has since responded to BTS’ withdrawal: “I am saddened to hear that BTS has chosen not to participate in the Grammy Awards process this year, but as a music creator, I understand and respect their decision.”

“The Asian Pop category was created to celebrate the depth, diversity and extraordinary growth of pop artistry coming out of Asia. The spirit of this new category is to shine a dedicated spotlight on these important artists. More categories mean more artists’ work is recognized. It’s never to divide, but to expand who is recognized by our 15,000 Grammy voters,” added Mason Jr. in a statement.

How does one get considered for a Grammy anyway?

The Recording Academy lists two major factors that can affect whether or not an artist submission can be formally accepted for Grammy consideration:

• The entry must come from a media company, which The Recording Academy defines as a “legitimate business entity” that promotes “audio and/or video content for commercial purposes” in the US
• For the 2027 Grammys, submitted recordings must be released between Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025, and Friday, Aug. 28, 2026

Nowhere is it mentioned that a record placed in one category is prohibited from being nominated in another. In fact, Bad Bunny’s Grammy award-winning “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” won both Album of the Year and Best Música Urbana Album.

As part of the consideration process, the Recording Academy also recognizes artist intent—a statement from the recording artist which contains added context, including why their specific submission was submitted for a specific category. “The Recording Academy’s Awards staff and screening committees can take into consideration the Artist Intent statement when reviewing submissions for Grammy eligibility and Category placement.”

Reasonable doubt

However, despite declared intentions, public reception was split in the middle, with some viewing the added categories as tokenistic excuses for representation—marginalizing international acts to sideline awards while excluding them from the show’s main awards: Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist.

And it’s not as if the speculation was baseless—the Grammys have historically been criticized for bias and have clashed with several artists over the years.

After all, BTS isn’t the first artist to withdraw from Grammy consideration:

• The Weeknd began boycotting the Grammys after his critically acclaimed album, “After Hours,” was snubbed at the 2021 awards.
• Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak declined to submit “An Evening With Silk Sonic” for the 2023 Grammys. However, rather than due to any hostilities, it was simply because they had already won four awards in 2022 for the same album.
• Drake has had several clashes with The Recording Academy, with the most notable being in 2017 when he criticized the Grammys for categorizing “Hotline Bling” as a rap record. He has not attended the award show since 2019.
• In 2024, Jay-Z voiced his displeasure with Beyoncé not having a single Album of the Year award despite being the most decorated artist in Grammy history. She did eventually win one with “Cowboy Carter” in 2025. Though, would that have happened if Jay-Z didn’t say anything?

Still, regardless of this so-called track record, artists of color have won at least one of the four main awards in the last five years: Silk Sonic, Jon Batiste, and Olivia Rodrigo in 2022; Lizzo and Samara Joy in 2023; Victoria Monét in 2024; Kendrick Lamar and Beyoncé in 2025; and Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Bad Bunny, and Olivia Dean this year.

Protest or surrender? 

Admittedly, BTS’ call to withdraw from Grammy consideration comes across as presumptuous.

Why? The whole idea of the Grammy snub narrative is that The Recording Academy is making smaller categories for international artists so they can be conveniently disregarded in the major categories.

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The Weeknd’s boycott is widely supported as his album was the bona fide hit of that year. BTS has never gotten close to a major award nomination. Meanwhile, their most notable nominations for “Dynamite” and “Butter” in 2021 and 2022, respectively, for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, lost to “Kiss Me More” by Doja Cat and SZA, and “Rain on Me” by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande.

Meanwhile, in 2023, BTS was nominated for two awards: Best Music Video for “Yet To Come” and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for “My Universe” with Coldplay.

“Arirang” would’ve been their big bet, as it is their comeback album following their return from military service. However, with the album being divisive among fans, even a nomination wouldn’t have been a guarantee, let alone a win.

Joshua Minsoo Kim of Pitchfork notes the hefty presence of Western co-producers and co-writers on the record, but laments the painfully base lyricism that pales in comparison to the group’s older releases. “Sometimes, all a song needs to do is make you believe in something—love, transcendence, yourself—but ‘Arirang’s’ messages repeatedly ring hollow, like birthday emails from a mega corporation.”

YouTube and music critic theneedledrop echoes a similar sentiment. For him, while the presence of Western collaborators signifies an attempt to usher in a new era for their music, the group remains “unaware of how weak its mimicry is.”

Still, we’re talking about K-pop and obsessively nonstop streaming. The financial success can’t be denied, with BTS selling over 567,000 physical copies of “Arirang” in the US alone.

Simply put, for as popular as “Dynamite” and “Butter” are, they are basic pop tracks aimed at Western radio play. “Arirang” was their first Western-directed project that had any semblance of genuine artistry you would expect from their native releases. And yet, for critics, the result was mid at best.

Perhaps it was better to withdraw and take the proverbial high road in support of a popular narrative than risk losing an award that would have essentially been made for them.