![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/this-combination-of-photos-show-rose-ejae-and-yoonchae-UAAV2FUUJJHS7EUMR2UM5GOY4I.jpg\")
<\/p>\nTwo things can be true at once. K-pop is an inextricable force in global pop culture, and it has long been undercelebrated at institutions like the Grammys \u2014 where K-pop artists have performed but have never taken home a trophy.<\/p>\n
That could change at next month’s 2026 Grammy Awards ceremony. <\/p>\n
Songs released by K-pop artists \u2014 or K-pop-adjacent artists, more on that later \u2014 have received nominations in the big four categories for the first time. Ros\u00e9, perhaps best known as one-fourth of the juggernaut girl group Blackpink, is the first K-pop artist to ever receive a nomination in the record of the year field for \u201cAPT.,\u201d her megahit with Grammys’ favorite Bruno Mars.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This combination of photos show Ros\u00e9, Ejae, and Yoonchae. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
The song of the year category also features K-pop nominees for the first time. \u201cAPT.\u201d will go head-to-head with the fictional girl group HUNTR\/X’s \u201cGolden,\u201d performed by Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami from the \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d soundtrack.<\/p>\n
And the girl group Katseye, the brain child of HYBE \u2014 the entertainment company behind K-pop sensation BTS and countless other international acts \u2014 fashioned in the image of the K-pop idol system, has been nominated for best new artist.<\/p>\n
Is this a historic moment for K-pop?<\/p>\n
It depends on who you ask.<\/p>\n
Areum Jeong, assistant professor of Korean Studies at Arizona State University and author of \u201cK-pop Fandom: Performing Deokhu from the 1990s to Today\u201d says the majority of these nominations strike her more as \u201ca de-territorialised, hybrid idea of K-pop,\u201d instead of a recognition of K-pop.<\/p>\n
While Ros\u00e9 \u201cwas recruited and trained under the K-pop system, and while \u2018APT.\u2019 does contain some motifs from the Korean drinking game,\u201d Jeong says, \u201cthe song does not feel like a localised K-pop production. \u2026 Same with Katseye, who was trained and produced under HYBE but marketed more toward Western fans and listeners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeong says that both \u201cAPT.\u201d and Katseye’s \u201cGabriela\u201d \u2014 both of which will go head-to-head with \u201cGolden\u201d in the pop duo\/group performance category \u2014 \u201cseem less K-pop than other K-pop songs that could have been nominated over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n
She argues the same is true for the music of \u201cKpop Demon Hunters.\u201d \u201cIt is very similar to \u2018APT.\u2019 in that it takes inspiration and motif from Korean culture,\u201d where \u201cK-pop serves as an idea, a jumping-off point, or a motif, creating alternatives or new possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mathieu Berbiguier, a visiting assistant professor in Korean Studies at Carnegie Mellon University, points out that these nominations differ from past K-pop Grammy nominations because \u201cGolden,\u201d \u201cAPT.\u201d and Katseye all feature \u201ca mainstream popular music factor.\u201d<\/p>\n
That’s the connection of a massive popular Netflix film (\u201cKpop Demon Hunters\u201d), a collaboration with Bruno Mars (\u201cAPT.\u201d), and Katseye’s international membership and Netflix series (\u201cPop Star Academy: Katseye\u201d), respectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt tells you that K-pop is not considered as something niche anymore,\u201d he says. \u201cNow, when we think about pop music in general, we also think of K-pop as part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bernie Cho, industry expert and president of the South Korean agency, the DFSB Kollective, agrees that there is an international, mainstream appeal to the nominees.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the nominees represent a sort of post-idol K-pop, in the sense that Ros\u00e9, the three ladies of HUNTR\/X and Katseye represent the globalised version of K-pop, where the \u2018K\u2019 is very much there, but some people might argue it\u2019s silent. The songs are not necessarily for Korea, by Korea, from Korea, just kind of beyond Korea,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a celebration and testament to how diverse and dynamic K-pop has become.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why are these acts being recognised now?<\/p>\n
\u201cFor years, the Recording Academy has snubbed K-pop acts that have set record-breaking standards, such as BTS, Seventeen and Stray Kids,\u201d argues Jeong. \u201cI think one of the main reasons is that the Western world is still so resistant to non-English lyrics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt does not surprise me that \u2018APT.\u2019 and Katseye\u2019s music, which mainly contain English lyrics and seem less K-pop, were nominated,\u201d she continues.<\/p>\n
Berbiguier adds that \u201cis a reflection of K-pop nowadays, like, trends: the fact that there\u2019s less and less Korean and more and more English.\u201d<\/p>\n
There may be an additional factor at play. Tamar Herman, a music journalist and author of the \u201cNotes on K-pop\u201d newsletter, says many critics and industry voices found 2025 to be a lackluster year for new pop music in the \u2014 a fact that was all but confirmed in Luminate’s 2025 Mid-Year Report, which found that streams of new music had slowed compared to the year prior, potentially due to a dearth of megahits dominating the charts.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, it’s a big moment for K-pop, but it is so overdue, these recognitions are more of a sign of how poorly the music industry in the did this year that we’re looking externally,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
She argues that acknowledgment of Korean entertainment from entertainment industries is more symbolic of cultural dominance slipping than \u201cK-pop being really good, because K-pop has been really good for a really long time,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is all recognition of just global storytelling improvement, global taste-making improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t want to diminish it,\u201d she adds. \u201cThese are all universally friendly, accessible, good pop songs.\u201d<\/p>\n
And if they weren’t, they wouldn’t connect.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s very obvious that they\u2019re not just performers. They’re artists. They’re singers. They’re songwriters,\u201d says Cho.<\/p>\n
Will a K-pop artist win a Grammy for the first time this year?<\/p>\n
The jury is still out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s not even a matter of if or when. It\u2019s going to be who and how many,\u201d says Cho.<\/p>\n
Others are less committal. \u201cIt’s hard to predict,\u201d says Berbiguier. \u201cFor me, it’s more possible that \u2018Golden\u2019 gets one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes and no,\u201d offers Herman. For her, it depends on an evolving and fluid definition of K-pop. After all, HUNTR\/X is a fictional girl group from an animated film that did not debut through the K-pop music industry system. <\/p>\n
Would a victory for their song \u201cGolden\u201d mean a victory of K-pop? That’s a matter of opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two things can be true at once. K-pop is an inextricable force in global pop culture, and it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[5806,49,48,75,341,1671],"class_list":{"0":"post-399414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-asia","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-north-america"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}