BTS deciding not to summit their work for the Grammys after knowing theyâd most likely win next year is precisely what integrity looks like and I wish a lot of Latin artists would do the same thing.
The Grammys didnât create that âBest Asian Musicâ category this year to be diverse. They did it to continue boxing non English speaking artists but especially BTS, so they wonât have to nominate them in the main categories with the rest of their peers. This was the Grammys telling BTS theyâll give them a Grammy win but under their own boxed category. We give you the scraps and you are supposed to take them. They said no.
Theyâve been doing this for years under the disguise of diversity. âBest Traditional Country Albumâ a new category introduced after BeyoncĂŠ won in the Best Country Album category because they couldnât stand a non white artist redefining that genre. âBest African Musicâ being introduced in 2024 to keep Tyla away from other pop girls. And âBest Latin Songâ being introduced for this year along with Best Asian Music after Bad Bunny right fully dominated all of the charts last year. And mind you, Brazilian artists cannot even submit their work for this category because the rules say it has to be 51% in Spanish, even when Brazilians speak Portuguese but are Latin people.
It was never about diversity. Itâs about boxing and categorizing these artists when global music (or more like non English music) is becoming bigger each year and this is the only way they can keep their American/British peers safe in their space.
In BTSâ latest album ARIRANG, they have a song called Alien where they describe feeling alienated by the industry duo to their xenophobic behavior. Them creating this category when they released one of the biggest albums of the year is proving them right. At the end, this was the right choice.
Great of BTS for rejecting the Grammys full on and not play into their very tokenization game.
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