There are some artists in this space who feel that this category isn’t representing the music they work so hard to create," Harvey Mason, Jr. said in a statement.
The Recording Academy is talking to members of the Asian pop community about its new best Asian pop music performance category, which, in an extraordinary move, may be re-conceived for the 2027 awards.
(There’s little time remaining: First-round voting begins on Oct. 12. Nominations will be announced on Nov. 16.).
Best Asian pop music performance was one of five new categories that were announced on June 16. But on July 29, BTS, the biggest K-pop act and arguably the biggest group in the world in any genre, announced that they were not entering their recordings for the Grammys this year, as a form of protest against the new category.
Thank you to ARMY and everyone who is always with us.”.
Over the past two weeks, Harvey Mason, Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy and MusiCares, and other leaders at the Grammy organization have been engaged in regular dialogue about the new category with various members of the music community representing K-pop, J-pop, C-pop, India and more, including musicians, labels, managers “and even HYBE,” according to the Academy.
Now the Academy is convening its full Board and Awards & Nominations Committee to work with members of and leaders from this community to help further advise them on the Asian Pop category, with the goal of “honoring the music respectfully and accurately in this first awards cycle and determining how we best honor this music in the future,” according to the Academy.
Furthermore, in the wake of this episode, the Academy says its full Board and Awards & Nominations Committee will evaluate whether it is time to update the process when it comes to how the Academy develops new categories and awards.
In the past, the Academy has opted for a highly confidential, hush-hush process so that news about the new categories is newsworthy even to people who are well-informed.
Going forward, they may instead make the process more transparent and open. They would lose the element of surprise when the new categories are announced, but they hope to avoid blow-ups like this where a change was not well understood or well received.
Industry veteran Ruby Marchand is the academy’s chief awards & global industry officer. Joanna Chu is vp, awards. Here’s a current list of key academy executives.
The Academy further revealed that several of its Gold Music Alliance volunteers — the reps who represent the Asian music community — have been “bullied and threatened by social media users who believe they were involved in the category’s creation, when in reality, the category was determined through the annual Awards & Nominations process.”.
The tone of Mason’s comment today is similar to the tone of his July 29 statement about the controversy. “I am saddened to hear that BTS has chosen not to participate in the Grammy Awards process this year, but as a music creator, I understand and respect their decision,” he said then, adding, “I do want to clarify something that seems to be getting lost in the conversation.
The Asian Pop category was created to celebrate the depth, diversity and extraordinary growth of pop artistry coming out of Asia. The spirit of this new category is to shine a dedicated spotlight on these important artists.
More categories mean more artists’ work is recognized. It’s never to divide, but to expand who is recognized by our 15,000 Grammy voters.
Some have criticized the new best Asian pop music performance category, which sits in the Pop & Dance/Electronic Field, fearing that it will lock Asian acts into a subcategory and deny them the opportunity to compete in the higher-profile General Field categories or in pop performance categories.
The former fear is unfounded; all artists from all genres can compete in the General Field categories, which include album, record and song of the year and best new artist.
But it is true that a specific recording can compete in only one performance category. If a recording is entered for best Asian pop music performance, it cannot be entered for, say, best pop duo/group performance.
The same act can, however, be nominated in multiple performance categories with different recordings.
The Recording Academy’s description of the new award, as it stands now, reads.
Stung and seemingly blindsided by the reaction to this category, the Academy reiterated its process for adding a new category.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *.
Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2026 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Fontes
Informação baseada em material público de Billboard, reescrito pela redação ULTRA NOTÍCIAS.
