The Recording Academy has spoken: the Best Asian Pop Music Performance will go on, BTS be damned.
This week, the organization announced that after a month-plus of “dialogue” and “candid feedback,” it is doubling down on its decision to award the new category at the 2027 Grammy Awards. In June, the Recording Academy announced the creation of Best Asian Pop Music Performance award, meant to honor excellence in genres “including, but not limited to” K-pop, J-pop, and C-pop. Almost immediately, fans of the genres, especially the extremely online K-pop faction, decried the award, arguing that instead of honoring Asian artists, the new Grammy pigeonholes them, providing a consolation prize from mainstream pop categories. BTS, the biggest K-pop band of them all — and the group immediately considered the prohibitive favorite for the inaugural award — took the side of the fans and announced it would boycott the ceremony. Stray Kids, another A-list K-pop group, followed suit.
BTS at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music FestivalChristopher Polk/PMC
With the bad publicity piling up, August, Record Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. released a statement in August indicating that the organization would seek input from artists about the award — a move that observers saw as perhaps the first step in postponing the new Grammy. But that didn’t happen. On Oct. 1, Mason said that after “conducting listening sessions and [being] in dialogue with leaders of the Asian music community,” the Recording Academy would go ahead with its original plan to present Asian Pop Music Performance at the January ceremony. “We understand this conclusion will not satisfy everyone, and that never feels good. But at the same time, we are confident it’s the right conclusion for the music community overall.”
The Recording Academy also confirmed that even with acts like BTS and Stray Kids abstaining, there was a “robust” number of submissions before the Aug. 21 deadline.
Now, the question is: who will be in?
First, it’s important to note that another huge K-pop group isn’t eligible: Blackpink, whose most recent EP is all-English. Likewise, Twice did not release anything this cycle. What could be eligible, though, is music from KPop Demon Hunters beyond the hit “Golden,” which became the first K-pop song to win a Grammy. This soundtrack’s second U.S. radio single, “How It’s Done,” would fit the bill.
Cortis at Lollapalooza 2026Victoria Sanders/Rolling Stone
Recent VMA nominees and BTS label mates Cortis are expected to be on the ballot with something from the boy band’s breakout GreenGreen, which peaked in the top three of the Billboard 200. The EP’s big hit is “RedRed,” which earned a VMA nomination for Best K-Pop and has accumulated more than 240 million streams. Girl group Le Sserafim was also nominated for a VMA this year, with their hit “Spaghetti,” featuring J-Hope of BTS. The song might be the biggest track eligible for the category, peaking at No. 6 on the Global 200 chart. But due to J-Hope’s participation, it’s unclear whether that cut has been submitted. If not, they might opt to submit “Celebration,” featured in Supergirl. The track has more than 50 million streams.
Le Sserafim at the 2026 iHeartRadio Music FestivalChristopher Polk/Billboard
Another buzzy breakout act is Hearts2Hearts, whose hit single “Rude!” has been massively viral on TikTok. The song topped the Korean charts and entered Billboard’s Global 200, one of the few eligible songs to do so. Its crossover appeal from TikTok could help it earn a nomination here. HYBE’s Illit could also be in line for a nod, having charted in the Hot 100 multiple times with hits like “Magnetic” and “Iconic by Mistake.” This year, their contender will likely be “It’s Me,” which charted on the Global charts and peaked at No. 10 on the Dance/Pop Songs chart in the U.S. One other commercial pick could be Aespa’s “Lemonade,” which has been big on TikTok and has accumulated more than 100 million streams. Aespa is also one of K-pop’s most reliable artists right now and might be too big to miss.
Bini at the 2026 CoachellaGilbert Flores/Billboard
There are a few options outside of K-pop, too. Most notably, Filipino girl group Bini has big support online and could get in with their singles “Bikini” or “Blush.” The band has broken barriers for Filipino music and has multiple songs with more than 100 million streams. Japanese band Yoasobi have accumulated a massive cult following online, garnering hundreds of millions of streams, so you might expect “Undead,” with more than 80 million streams already.
Yoasobi at Lollapalooza 2026Victoria Sanders/Rolling Stone
Last but not least, while usually competing in rock and metal, the J-pop/kawaii-metal fusion group Babymetal could leverage the new category to enter a track from Metal Forth. Although snubbed in the rock categories last year despite a Top 10 Billboard 200 launch, the entire album remains eligible except for “From Me to U.”