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Popular K-pop group Stray Kids let the submission window for the 69th Grammy Awards close without entering any music, their agency JYP Entertainment confirmed on Friday, joining BTS in sitting out the ceremony.
The agency
confirmed to local media that the group filed no entry before the Aug. 21 submission deadline, but offered no explanation for the move and would not confirm whether the new Asian Pop category played any part in it. Under Grammy rules, music not formally submitted cannot appear on the nomination screening ballots or go on to compete for a win.
All eight Stray Kids members — Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin and I.N — received invitations this year to become Recording Academy voters, a role that lets them help pick nominees and winners even though they kept their own music out of the running.
At an Aug. 6 press conference in Seoul for the group’s 10th EP, “This & That,” members sidestepped direct questions about their Grammy plans. Seungmin deflected a question about the new category by pointing to what drives the group creatively rather than how it’s perceived externally, while Hyunjin said the band has never chased an award or a chart milestone since debuting, calling fan satisfaction the group’s real benchmark.
BTS dropped a bombshell in July that it would not submit its own music for the 69th Grammy Awards, after the Recording Academy had introduced the Asian Pop category the month before. “We have decided not to submit for Grammy consideration this year,” the group said in a statement posted across its members’ individual Instagram accounts. “We hope our music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language. We thank Army and everyone who has always stood by us.” BTS has been nominated for Grammys five times but has never won.
The Recording Academy had spent several weeks holding listening sessions and talking with leaders in the Asian music community before Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. confirmed on Thursday that the category would proceed for 2027. He said the Academy heard both candid opposition to the category and strong support for keeping it, with enthusiasm from fellow music creators ultimately outweighing the criticism.
“We understand this conclusion will not satisfy everyone, and that never feels good,” Mason said. “But at the same time, we are confident it’s the right conclusion for the music community overall.” The Academy also noted it had received a “robust” number of submissions for the category’s first year, and Mason said it looks forward to celebrating its nominees at the 2027 ceremony.
The new category revives a familiar tension around the Grammys’ genre-specific awards: intended to spotlight a style of music, they can instead read as exclusionary, with voters steering artists toward the niche category rather than the more mainstream ones. The complaint has long trailed the Latin Grammys.
K-pop’s clearest Grammy breakthrough to date came earlier this year when “Golden” — from the animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” and featuring vocals from the fictional group Huntr/x’s EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami — won best song written for visual media, though it lost out in best song.
Nominees for the 69th Grammy Awards are scheduled to be announced Nov. 16, with the ceremony set for Feb. 7, 2027.
