V, Jungkook, Jin, Suga, RM, Jimin and J-Hope of BTS at The 52nd American Music Awards held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 25, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Dick Clark Productions via Getty Images)
Fresh off a long-awaited and highly-anticipated comeback, the pop powerhouse BTS looked poised to add to its total of five Grammy nominations and potentially walk away with a win that would be a career-defining moment and history-making for the Korean music industry.
Big picture view:
Following the creation of five new categories, including ones for Best Asian Pop Music and Best Latin Song, however, that likely will not happen. BTS revealed Wednesday that they will not submit their music for consideration this year.
What they're saying:
All seven BTS members – RM, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, Jung Kook and Jin – shared the same message Wednesday when announcing they would not submit their music for consideration:
"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."
The backstory:
Last month, the Recording Academy announced tweaks to its rules for this year’s Grammys alongside the new categories: 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.
The Asian Pop Music category was said to recognize "performances originating from or widely recognized within Asian markets… with meaningful use of one or more Asian languages." The announcement was met with criticism by fans that the Recording Academy created a new racialized barrier for Asian performers.
A BTS representative did offer any additional comment to the one posted by the group members, and the Recording Academy has not responded to a request for comment.
Dig deeper:
Despite K-pop’s worldwide success, the genre never received much attention from the Grammys until this year. No K-pop act had won an award until this February, when "Golden," a song featured in the Netflix animated film "KPop Demon Hunters" took home the trophy for best song for visual media. The night’s festivities also opened with Blackpink’s Rosé performing "APT." with Bruno Mars and becoming the first solo K-pop artist to perform at the Grammys.
BTS’ decision comes six years after they became the first Korean performers to take the stage during the Grammy Awards ceremony. In that 2020 performance, they were one of the several high-profile acts joining Lil Nas X’s renditions of "Old Town Road," Rolling Stone reported.
The next year, BTS were back. This time, though, they were arriving with the first-ever Grammy nomination for a K-pop band in hand, for the song "Dynamite," and performed the number-one hit during the ceremony. BTS was also featured in the 2022 Grammys, which was the same year band members went on hiatus as they completed their required military service in South Korea.
After four years, the septet came back this March with Arirang, their 14-track fifth studio album.