Salim Merchant on BTS skipping Grammys: 'The Recording Academy serves American artistes first'

Dubai: BTS have decided not to submit any music for the 2027 Grammy Awards, a month after the Recording Academy announced a new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category. The group framed the decision as a rejection of being sorted by geography rather than judged on the music.

Indian composer Salim Merchant, speaking to Hindustan Times, says none of this surprised him. His argument is that the Recording Academy has always been an American institution serving American artistes first, and that everyone else eventually gets funnelled into a smaller room.

The withdrawal

All seven members of the group posted an identical message to their individual Instagram accounts on 29 July. A translation reads: "We have decided not to submit to the Grammys this year. I hope that music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language."

The album in question is ARIRANG, their comeback record. The decision by RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jung Kook came a month after the Academy announced five new categories for next year's awards.

The new category covers performances originating from or widely recognised in Asian markets that make meaningful use of one or more Asian languages. Entries for the 69th Grammy Awards are open from 7 July to 21 August.

Merchant's view

Merchant told Hindustan Times he was not surprised at all to learn of the BTS decision, describing preference for American artistes as simply how the Academy operates and as its prerogative.

His broader point concerns where non-American music ends up. He argued that because the Academy's proceeds go towards American recording artists, a non-American entry has very limited chances of landing in the main categories, and that the rest of the global industry is effectively treated as world music.

That framing is the sharper part of his case. Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. has insisted the opposite is true, saying that submitting in a genre category does not exclude an artist from the general field. Merchant's contention is about practice rather than rules: the door is technically open, but the traffic goes elsewhere.

He also raised the question of access. As he put it to the paper, an Indian citizen submitting an album would come nowhere close to a nomination without collaborating with an Academy member.

The two examples he cites

Merchant pointed to AR Rahman's Slumdog Millionaire wins, noting that Rahman had strong representation in the United States at the time through the Gorfaine/Schwartz Agency, which he said handled the composer's Hollywood representation during a period when Rahman was considering a move to the US.

His second example was Ricky Kej. Merchant noted that for Divine Tides, Kej collaborated with Stewart Copeland, formerly of The Police, a respected Academy member and established American artist, and argued this made the record a much stronger contender.

Merchant's conclusion is that recording artists in India and elsewhere largely do not know how any of this works, which is arguably the most useful thing in his commentary. The mechanics of Grammy campaigning, membership, screening committees and voting blocs are opaque even to people inside the industry.

What the Academy says

Mason has been publicly pushing back since the BTS announcement.

"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.

He added that the Asian Pop category was created to celebrate the depth, diversity and growth of pop artistry coming out of Asia, and that the spirit of it is to shine a dedicated spotlight on those artists.

On the segregation criticism, Mason said more categories mean more artists' work is recognised, and that the intention is never to divide but to expand who gets recognised by the Academy's 15,000 voters.

He was also explicit that the general field stays open: "Those categories remain open to any eligible recording, regardless of genre. Recognition in a genre category and recognition in the General Field are not mutually exclusive. An artist can absolutely pursue both."

Asian pop music has rarely been acknowledged by the Recording Academy, which presented the category as a step towards inclusivity. That is precisely what makes it contentious. A dedicated category can read as recognition or as a holding pen, depending on whether you think the main categories were ever realistically available.

BTS have a specific history here. They were nominated three years running for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance and never won, and their Korean-language work only broke into the nominations through a collaboration with Coldplay.

The group performed at the FIFA World Cup final halftime show in July, which gives some sense of where they sit commercially. An act at that level declining to enter is a meaningful loss of prestige for the awards.