BTS pulls out of Grammys after Asian pop class introduction

Global Okay-pop sensation BTS stated on Wednesday (Jul 29) they won’t submit their music for subsequent 12 months’s Grammy Awards, following the Recording Academy’s introduction of recent classes that embrace the Best Asian Pop Music Performance.

The South Korean megastars had been broadly tipped to be within the working for a number of of the Grammys’ high honours, together with Album of the Year, after their comeback album, Arirang, grew to become certainly one of this 12 months’s best-selling hits. 

“We have decided not to enter the Grammys this year,” BTS members stated in coordinated posts on their particular person Instagram accounts. 

“We hope that music is heard and loved for what it is, rather than being defined by region or language,” they stated.

BTS is the primary all-South Korean act to reign over Billboard’s US high singles chart, which they achieved with their 2020 observe Dynamite, their first hit sung fully in English. 

Despite performing on the Grammys and incomes a number of nominations, together with for Best Music Video, the group has by no means gained. 

Arirang, named after a South Korean people music, consists of intensive English lyrics and explores themes that embrace Korean id following the band’s hiatus for necessary navy service. 

However, it will not have certified for the Grammys’ new Best Asian Pop Music Performance class, amongst 5 new classes introduced final month, as a result of it requires entries to make “meaningful use” of no less than one Asian language. 

The Recording Academy stated the brand new award goals to honour “artistic excellence in Asian pop music performances originating from or widely recognised within Asian markets, including but not limited to K-pop, J-pop and C-pop”. 

It drew blended reactions on-line, with some critics saying it containers Asian artists right into a separate class as an alternative of recognising them alongside international friends.