Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Pop music coming out of Asia is gaining more traction in the U.S. every year, but it has yet to receive any outstanding recognition at the Grammys. In an attempt to seemingly rectify that, the Recording Academy has announced the addition of “Best Asian Pop Music Performance” among four other new award categories taking the stage at the 2027 Grammys in February.
According to the Record Academy, the new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category will recognize "Asian pop" including but not limited to K-pop, J-pop, and C-pop “with meaningful use of one or more Asian languages.” It joins other new categories Best R&B Collaboration or Duo/Group Performance, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance, Best Traditional Folk Album, and Best Latin Song. The complete information on the changes can be found here.
For years, the Grammys' engagement with K-pop has felt indifferent and possibly out of touch with each cycle, amounting to hopeful nominations followed by heartbreaking losses. Most notable is how BTS went 0 for 3 in Best Pop Duo/Group Performance nominations from 2021 to 2023.
The group’s hit "Dynamite," with its engineered catchiness, got BTS nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2021 ceremony, their first nomination and the first for any K-pop act. They lost the trophy to Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande's "Rain on Me." The next year, "Butter" was nominated in the same category and lost to Doja Cat and SZA's "Kiss Me More." Then, "My Universe," their English-and-Korean collaboration with Coldplay, was nominated in the same category at the 2023 Grammys for their third straight year, and they lost again. ARMYs also expected nods in the 2025 cycle for Jung Kook, RM, and Jimin with their solo releases, yet all three were passed over before the group reunited for their 2026 comeback tour.
At the most recent ceremony in February, K-pop nominations broke through with HUNTR/X for "Golden" (from KPop Demon Hunters), Rosé for "APT.," and KATSEYE for "Gabriela." "APT." pulled three nominations, including Record and Song of the Year, to become the most-nominated song by any Korean or K-pop artist in Grammy history, and the first time a K-pop lead artist landed a Big Four nomination. But the only act that left a winner that night was HUNTR/X, who took home for Best Song Written for Visual Media.
Retrospectively, with the new category only considering music that “meaningfully” uses of one or more Asian languages, songs like “Dynamite” or “APT.Apt,,” despite their undeniable crossover success, wouldn’t have qualified anyway.
The new category raises some interesting questions of how it will ultimately affect K-pop, J-pop, and C-pop representation at the award show moving forward. Perhaps an optimistic look at the category is that it will give room to Asian pop without pandering to music that simply draws inspiration from Asian culture. Netizens online, however, are pointing out that the category could, on the other hand, further silo K-pop and J-pop from "western" music and only serve to segregate them out of consideration in the general categories entirely. Only time will tell how things will shake out.