By Therese Orosa
BTS taking a stand against the Grammys’ new “Best Asian Pop” category is a stand against the consistent sidelining and disrespect done to Asian Artists and Asian music within the western music industry. BTS, Blackpink, Beabadoobee, and Mitski are just some of the Asian music acts that have reached global status, yet none of them have received a Grammy award for their success.
The Grammys’ new category is only one of many examples of Asian artists and music being overlooked and ostracized by the western music industry.
On June 16, 2026, The Grammys announced five new categories that are set to take effect for the 2027 ceremony, one of them being labeled “Best Asian Pop Category.” This category sparked backlash and discussion, catching the attention of global K-Pop sensation, BTS.
In response to this new category, BTS released an announcement in Korean that they will not be submitting their music to the 2027 Grammy Awards, stating that they hope that:
“...music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided into region or language.”
This statement sparked discourse, leading to BTS’ Grammy performances to be removed from the official Grammy YouTube account and an official statement made by the Grammys CEO, Harvey Mason Jr., in defense of the new category. Both statements have sparked mixed reactions among the general public and the music industry as a whole. After months of discussion, the Grammys have decided to move forward with this category, claiming the majority of feedback was in support of keeping it.
As someone who wants to work in the music industry with the intent on uplifting Asian voices, I recognize that I will have to work harder than the next person. This isn’t the first time Asian artists have been sidelined by the industry. Only recently have we seen more Asian and Asian American artists break into mainstream markets, despite many years of people trying.
A perfect example of this is Jeremy Passion and Tori Kelly, two best friends who started posting singing videos on YouTube at the same time with the same genre of music. One is an Asian man who doesn’t fit the western’s natural idea of what an Asian is supposed to look like due to his Filipino features and tan skin, while the other is a multiracial, white passing, conventionally attractive woman.
Unfortunately, only the latter was able to break into mainstream markets, landing her collabs with Ed Sheeran and a role in the musical cartoon, SING. As a matter of fact, Tori Kelly was a part of a friend group of male Filipino singers who she would make countless videos and covers with, yet still to this day, none of them have been able to expand their audience beyond Asian fans.
That is something we continue to see happening today with artists like keshi, NIKI, and Jackson Wang, where they have been forced into a part of the industry that is unable to grow past the Asian market, despite their chart success and social media virality.
Due to BTS’ success and the rise of K-Pop, many people, including myself, wondered when BTS would receive their Grammy win, following the popularity of their first English song, “Dynamite”. In the end, BTS did not win, but the issue did not lie with their loss. The issue lied with how the Grammys used BTS’ popularity and loyal fanbase to gain viewership. In addition to not even presenting the award during the main show, they continuously made it seem like BTS was next to perform when in reality they were one of the last performances. It was reported that the viewership plummeted once their performance was done.
This situation became repeated the following year, where they would show BTS periodically throughout the program, continuously promising their performance after the next commercial break, and still not take home a trophy. In the same matter, after their performance, the viewership continued to decrease. It felt like BTS was being used for their fan base. Not only that, but the songs they were losing to were nowhere near the amount of chart success compared to BTS’ songs.
After multiple nominations and no win, the Grammys created “Best Asian Pop” as a category. Harvey Mason Jr. claimed that this category was to uplift Asian artists and give exposure to more artists. I think they were scared. After the massively successful releases of RM’s Indigo album, Jungkook’s single “Seven”, and the group’s highly anticipated comeback album, ARIRANG, I think the Grammys knew that not just BTS but K-Pop as a whole was a force to be reckoned with.
Artists like Stray Kids, Seventeen, Twice, and Rosé have been smashing the charts with hit after hit, and with the hype of the hit Netflix original movie, KPop Demon Hunters, K-Pop was on the rise. And the Grammys knew that. They knew they had to nominate K-Pop acts for categories, but I don’t think they wanted those acts to get in the way of the artists they have grown to be so comfortable with.
"Music is expression. It is art, and it is for everyone regardless of ethnicity, gender, region, or language."
Their solution was to create a new category. Segregate artists based on region and race, disregarding culture, language, and diversity. In hopes of making sure it is inclusive enough, the guidelines of this category stated that it will not be based on ethnicity and nationality. The only rule was that it needed to use an Asian language in a “meaningful way.”
With these guidelines, it meant that BTS’ mostly English title track, “SWIM”, will not be eligible for consideration, while Trisha Paytas, a white American woman, could win for the category for her song “Saranghae (I love you).” If we take those extremes out of the way, we are still comparing different languages and cultures. A traditional Bollywood song could be put against a Filipino R&B song and a K-Pop song that uses the old folk songs they used to sing during the Japanese Occupation.
This is not a new concept.
The Grammys and the western music industry have done this before, but this time they’re more direct. They used to do it in sneaky ways. “Black” music would be switched to “Urban/Rap” music, and Latin American music would be considered its individual category based on language.
Tyler, The Creator, in his 2020 post-Grammy interview, stated his disheartenance about how other Black artists are always put into a rap or urban category. He expressed his dislike towards the word “urban,” stating, “it’s just a politically correct way of saying the n-word to me.” But this is now blatant racism and ostracization towards the Asian music community.
They’re pigeonholing artists that look like me, that I see myself in. They’re telling young Asian men and women that we can only win against each other. They’re telling us that we will never be stars. Growing up Filipino American, I was always taught to have pride for my heritage and my country.
If I saw a character played by a half-Filipino, I would get so excited and happy that there was someone like me on screen. The same goes for singers. Bruno Mars being Filipino was a common fact among my family and fellow Filipinos, but he would never really talk about it. There were countless times I would have to prove to my friends that he is half-Filipino, that someone so successful and popular was the same as me, but still, he would never fully promote it.
So, when Olivia Rodgrio and H.E.R. started to gain popularity, the joy was sparked again, giving pride to Filipinos around the world for their success. But H.E.R. is a half-Black, half-Filipino R&B singer, and she was not very Filipino looking. She loved talking about her Filipino heritage and family, but the industry already labeled her as a strong Black R&B artist. The culture she so badly wants to share is completely wiped and undermined by her imaging and brand.
Comparatively, Olivia Rodrigo was very white passing in her acting days, never talking about her culture unless it was Disney’s promotion of AAPI month. In her early days of music, she never mentioned it, but once her team saw how much support, fans, and money they gained from Filipino fans just because she has Filipino blood, it became her image.
These are the people I grew up looking up to. Half-Asian artists that did not look like they had Asian blood, who either hid their heritage or used it for profit. These are the ones that are successful. These are the ones that can go against any race. But the ones that truly represent Asians and look like us, are put against each other and taught that the only way you can win is against your own race.
In the end, the Grammys have decided to keep this category, claiming that: “the loudest feedback we heard was from people who were enthusiastic supporters of the category, fellow music creators expressing their encouragement for keeping it.” It was not musical uplifting; it was musical segregation.
Unfortunately, this has always been around, but the Grammys is the first ones to get massively caught up in it.
Music is expression. It is art, and it is for everyone regardless of ethnicity, gender, region, or language.
It should represent everyone on an equal playing field. That is what the western industry is missing. If you compare Asian countries and their disregard for language or ethnicity, you can see people loving music for what it is; love, self expression, representation, and community. And it is a good thing that this category is being reconsidered and edited to be inclusive and representative of all people, but it should not have even been made in the first place.
None of these genres and categories with a historically racial background should have been here to begin with. People call music “the universal language,” so why do we keep on trying to divide it among ourselves?
