Grammy Asian Pop Category Loses All 3 of K-Pop's Biggest Acts Before Its First Year

The Grammy's brand-new Asian Pop category was supposed to be a milestone for K-pop. Instead, it's heading into its first nomination cycle without BTS, Stray Kids, or BLACKPINK, the three acts that arguably made the category worth creating in the first place.

Each group is absent for a different reason, and together they raise an uncomfortable question about what this award is actually for.

BTS and Stray Kids opted out

BTS made the most pointed move: the group declined to submit any work for the 69th Grammy Awards at all. Their stated reason was that they want their music heard and loved as music, not sorted by region or language. That's a polite way of saying they don't want a separate table. It functions, for all practical purposes, as a boycott.

Stray Kids also did not submit their name for this cycle, which was first reported by Sports Kyunghyang. The group has not explained why, and whether the new Asian Pop category played any role remains unconfirmed.

BLACKPINK disqualified on language and timing

BLACKPINK's situation is more technical, and honestly more embarrassing for the Recording Academy's category design. The group's third mini-album DEADLINE, released February 27, contains five tracks. Four of them are entirely in English, which disqualifies them outright under the Asian Pop rules: the Recording Academy requires that at least one Asian language be used in a meaningful way, not just a few words or an ad-lib.

The fifth track, JUMP, does include Korean lyrics, but it isn't a new release in this eligibility window. It was first put out as a digital single on July 11 last year and was already submitted for the 68th Grammy Awards. Under the official 69th Grammy rulebook, an album track only qualifies if it was not previously submitted as a single in a prior year. JUMP is therefore ineligible.

The eligibility window for the 69th Grammys runs from August 31 last year through August 28 this year.

Solo work doesn't save them either

Extend the search to the members' solo catalogs and the result is the same, just for different reasons.

Jennie was the most active of the four within the eligibility window. She released Less than a Lover on July 24 and followed it with the digital EP Fallen Angel on August 28. Both releases are entirely in English.

Jisoo's AMORTAGE, which came out on February 14 last year, included two Korean-language tracks out of four, the right language, wrong timing. It landed before the eligibility window opened. Her collaboration with Jane, EYES CLOSED, released October 10 last year, falls within the window but is all in English. Her more recent single CLICK dropped September 4, which is after the August 28 cutoff.

Lisa's situation has a particularly sharp irony. Bad Angel, released in April, is entirely in English. Goals, her FIFA World Cup track from May, blends English, Spanish, and Portuguese. The one release where she leaned explicitly into her Thai roots, SaWaDiKa, whose title pulls directly from a Thai greeting, came out September 4. One week past the deadline. Not eligible.

Rosé's timing missed from the other direction. Messy came out last May, On My Mind last June, both before the current eligibility period began. Her new single New Trick was released on the 18th of last month, also outside the window.

What the category is actually testing

The Recording Academy announced the Asian Pop category as recognition that K-pop, J-pop, and C-pop have become major forces in the global music industry. The stated intent was to give them a dedicated spotlight.

What the first eligibility cycle has revealed instead is a category that many of its intended honorees either can't enter or won't. The language requirement makes a real distinction: acts that write in Asian languages are in, acts that have pivoted heavily toward English-language releases for Western markets are out. That's a legitimate artistic line to draw, but it means the category skews away from the groups with the highest international profiles, at least right now.

If the first nominee list ends up populated by acts who kept Korean, Japanese, or Chinese at the center of their music, the Asian Pop Grammy will look meaningfully different from a generic K-pop popularity prize. Whether that was the intent, and whether the industry accepts it as a credible distinction, is the real story the nominations will tell.

The Recording Academy said on the 1st (local time) that after consulting with figures in the Asian music industry, it decided to proceed with the category as planned, and that a substantial number of submissions had already been received in the first year.