All seven BTS members — RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook — posted an identical statement on their individual Instagram accounts on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, announcing they will not submit music from their fifth studio album Arirang for consideration at the 2027 Grammy Awards.

"We have decided not to submit to the Grammys this year," the statement read. "I hope that music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language. Thank you to ARMY and everyone who is always with us." Billboard

The decision lands just weeks after the Recording Academy introduced the Best Asian Pop Music Performance category as one of five new Grammy categories, announced in June 2026 and designated for the 2027 ceremony. The category sits in the Pop & Dance/Electronic Field and requires songs to include "meaningful use" of any Asian language. Grammy.com

That language requirement creates an awkward fit for BTS. Their English-language single "Swim," which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, would be excluded from the new category entirely because it is in English. Meanwhile, under Grammy rules, a specific recording can compete in only one performance category — meaning a track entered for Best Asian Pop Music Performance could not also be entered for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, where BTS has previously been nominated three years in a row. Billboard

Arirang, released in March 2026 following the group's completion of mandatory military service, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 641,000 units — streaming equivalent album units, the measure that converts plays into album sales — and held the top spot for a second consecutive week on the chart dated April 11, 2026. It marked the biggest opening week for a group album in over a decade. Billboard

The album's rollout extended into a world tour that included a sold-out North American kickoff in Tampa, a stadium show in Goyang, a concert in Mexico City, and a live viewing event in Busan. Billboard

BTS has received five Grammy nominations in total. Their streak includes three consecutive Best Pop Duo/Group Performance nominations for "Dynamite" (2021), "Butter" (2022), and "My Universe" with Coldplay (2023), plus 2023 nominations for Album of the Year as a featured artist on Coldplay's Music of the Spheres and Best Music Video for "Yet to Come." The group performed on the Grammy telecast twice — a remote performance from a Seoul skyscraper in 2021 and a spy-themed rendition of "Butter" in Las Vegas in 2022. Billboard

BTS are not the first major act to withhold music from Grammy consideration. Drake, The Weeknd, and Morgan Wallen have each previously declined to submit their work. Billboard

The broader Grammy landscape has shifted for Asian pop in recent months. K-pop scored its first-ever Grammy win when "Golden," from Netflix's KPop Demon Hunters, took Best Song Written for Visual Media. The new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category was part of a set of updates that also included a renamed Best R&B category and a new Best R&B Collaboration or Duo/Group Performance category. Grammy.com

What makes BTS's decision stand out is the timing. The Recording Academy built a category that, in principle, gives Korean and other Asian-language pop a dedicated lane at the Grammys — and the biggest act in that lane is choosing to sit out the inaugural edition. The members' own words point to a concern about music being "divided by region or language," a phrase that reads as a critique of category lines drawn along linguistic boundaries. Whether other artists follow suit, or whether the category flourishes without BTS, will play out over the submissions window ahead of the 2027 ceremony.