BTS and Stray Kids Both Skip the 2027 Grammys Over Asian Pop Category

Stray Kids has joined BTS in sitting out next year’s Grammy Awards, after the Recording Academy decided to keep its new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category unchanged for the 2027 ceremony.

BTS Stray Kids Grammys Boycott: What Happened This Week

The BTS Stray Kids Grammys boycott became fully confirmed this week, after JYP Entertainment told South Korean media on Friday that Stray Kids had not submitted any music for the 69th Grammy Awards before the August 21 deadline. The agency offered no explanation for the decision, but it follows BTS’s own withdrawal in July, and leaves the Recording Academy’s newly created Asian Pop category without its two biggest global acts.

The confirmation came a day after the Recording Academy, following a review that included input from HYBE and other figures across the Asian music industry, decided on October 1 to keep the Best Asian Pop Music Performance category unchanged for next year’s ceremony.

Why BTS Started the Boycott Over the New Asian Pop Category

The Recording Academy introduced Best Asian Pop Music Performance in June as one of five new categories for the 69th Grammy Awards, intended to recognise pop music from K-pop, J-pop and C-pop that makes meaningful use of an Asian language. BTS announced on July 29 that they would not submit their comeback album, Arirang, for consideration, saying they hoped music could be heard and loved for what it is rather than divided by region or language. The album’s largely English tracklist underscored a core problem with the category’s language-based eligibility rule.

Recording Academy chief executive Harvey Mason Jr initially defended the category as a way to celebrate the depth and growth of Asian pop artistry, while noting that artists in genre categories remain eligible for top honors like Album of the Year. By mid-August, however, Mason acknowledged that some artists felt the category did not represent the music they worked hard to create, and said the Academy had spent two weeks in discussions with artists and industry figures about possible changes.

Stray Kids Stayed Quiet for Months Before Confirming Its Own Snub

Stray Kids had avoided directly addressing its Grammy plans for weeks. At an August 6 press conference in Seoul for their 10th EP, This & That, members repeatedly said they had never set awards as a goal when making music, without confirming or denying a submission. All eight members of both BTS and Stray Kids were invited to become Recording Academy voting members this year, meaning they can help choose nominees and winners even though neither group entered its own work.

Billboard had named Stray Kids among the strongest contenders for the inaugural Asian Pop trophy following BTS’s exit, pointing to tracks from This & That and the group’s fan-anthem STAY as plausible submissions. JYP Entertainment’s October 2 confirmation that no entry was filed closed that door.

Beyond the announcement

The dispute echoes a broader debate that has surfaced at the Grammys before, including criticism from Tyler, The Creator over Black artists being steered toward rap categories regardless of the music they actually make. Critics argue that award categories built around region, language or ethnicity can end up separating artists from the Grammys’ main competition rather than drawing more attention to their work.

Analysis

With both BTS and Stray Kids sitting out and the category confirmed to proceed unchanged, the Recording Academy heads into its November 16 nominations announcement facing an inaugural Asian Pop award missing the two acts most likely to have dominated it. Nominees will instead likely be drawn from a smaller pool of contenders, raising early questions about how much visibility and prestige the category can carry in its first year. How the Academy adjusts eligibility rules ahead of future ceremonies may determine whether more of the genre’s biggest names choose to compete in 2028.