If Not BTS At The Grammys, Then Who? 6 K-Pop Contenders For The Asian Pop Category — Forbes

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Hollywood & Entertainment If Not BTS At The Grammys, Then Who? 6 K-Pop Contenders For The Asian Pop Category By Hannah Abraham ,

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Hannah Abraham covers entertainment, culture and business. Follow Author Jul 30, 2026, 09:30am EDT Jul 30, 2026, 10:16am EDT --:-- / --:-- This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more . This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more . Summary BTS announced a withdrawal from the 2027 Grammys' new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category, surprising the Recording Academy and leaving the field wide open. CEO Harvey Mason Jr. expressed sadness over the decision, which makes BTS the first major act to reject the award. The category requires "meaningful use of one or more Asian languages." With BTS out, top K-pop contenders emerge, including chart-topping powerhouses like ATEEZ and self-produced Stray Kids, both boasting significant commercial success and Western award recognition. Festival darlings aespa and crossover-focused LE SSERAFIM offer strong live performance and critical appeal. ENHYPEN presents a dark horse with cinematic synth-pop, while rookie group CORTIS shows undeniable momentum despite being new. The inaugural winner will depend on how the Academy weighs commercial performance, critical reception, and language interpretation, highlighting the need for intensive press campaigns in this new, undefined landscape.

To waves of consternation in fandoms around the world, BTS announced this week that they will not be submitting music for consideration at the 2027 Grammy Awards. This made them the first major act to publicly withdraw from consideration for, among others, the Recording Academy’s newly created Best Asian Pop Music Performance category before it has even awarded its first trophy. Grammy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said he was "saddened" by this development.

The eligibility window for nominations closes on August 28, 2026, less than a month from now. Nominations will be announced November 16.

Let’s be real — critical acclaim or no, considering everything that BTS has done for South Korean soft power and its economy (not to mention the surefire fandom detonation in case of non-recognition), there was no way they wouldn’t have been nominated for a Grammy this time.

But now, with BTS taking themselves out of consideration, the Asian Pop category is actually wide open.

I’ve already mentioned several acts from the Philippines, Japan and India who would be strong contenders for this category (and will be doing a larger piece on them soon), but if we’re being honest with ourselves, it is the worldwide explosion of K-pop that has led to this development at this moment in time.

So this is my list of top-contender K-pop acts who are eligible to submit, have seen considerable success in the eligibility window, and haven’t publicly withdrawn themselves from consideration (not yet anyway).

The Grammy rulebook states that eligible recordings must originate from or be widely recognised within Asian markets, with "meaningful use of one or more Asian languages", specifically that "an Asian language should play a significant role within the song in bilingual or multilingual structures such that the recording is identifiable with that language.”

So that rules out ethnically diverse acts like KATSEYE from this category, because although Sophia, Lara, Yoonchae and Megan have Asian roots, all their songs are in English.

Unlike for the Latin Grammys, which need qualifying tracks to be 60% Spanish , Portuguese, or a recognized indigenous or regional Ibero-American language or dialect, no percentage threshold or language lists have been published for this one. The award goes to the performing artist themselves , not the producer or the label. Any qualifying release between August 31, 2025 and August 28, 2026 is eligible.

ATEEZ’s Golden Hour: Part 5 (June 26, 2026) is almost entirely in Korean and commercially enormous, with 1.88 million copies in its first week and a Billboard 200 number one , which also gives them the most top 10s this decade among groups. From personal experience, I can confirm that their live performances are some of the best in the entire industry in terms of pure energy and choreography as well as mics that are very evidently on. They already have U.S. award credibility, having won K-Pop Artist of the Year at the iHeartRadio Music Awards last year and earned nominations at the American Music Awards (AMAs).

However, Grammy voters tend to give importance to reviews from established and tastemaking Western music outlets like Rolling Stone, Billboard and NME, and while those publications have consistently published interviews and news pieces, there haven’t been any formal reviews of this specific eligible album. This lack of engagement from mainstream English-language press presents a sizeable hurdle, as Grammy voters outside the core K-pop sphere rely heavily on those exact publications to guide their ballots. What could mitigate this is the fact that Hongjoong has recently been on a number of US podcasts like Zach Sang, Artist Friendly with Joel Madden and 102.7KIISFM, which would put the group and their personalities in front of a larger voting bloc.

ATEEZ's case for the award ultimately rests on the sheer scale of their nine consecutive Billboard 200 top tens , a BST Hyde Park headline set this year, and being the most commercially consistent K-pop act outside the Big Four, as opposed to a universally covered critical moment within the eligibility window.

"BAD" remains the eligible track most likely to attract Grammy attention based on chart performance and global reach (that includes a music video starring the Golden Globe-nominated Chase Infiniti ).

With SEVENTEEN’s major anniversary release falling outside the eligibility window, Stray Kids’ SKZ IT TAPE DO IT (November 2025) takes center stage as a primary boy group contender. Delivering their eighth B...

If Not BTS At The Grammys, Then Who? 6 K-Pop Contenders For The Asian Pop Category — Forbes | AIPROPX