The Recording Academy, presenter of the Grammys, hasn’t paid all that much attention to Asian Pop music throughout its history, but K-pop has been selling out arenas, topping charts, and generating billions — all without a dedicated category on Music’s Biggest Night.
Now there’s a category set to be introduced at the 2027 Grammys to fix all that — if we can figure out who’ll be eligible.
What Is the Grammy Best Asian Pop Music Performance Category?
On Tuesday (June 16), the Recording Academy announced the Best Asian Pop Music Performance category as one of five new additions for the 69th Grammy Awards, set to air February 7, 2027. This will bring the total number of Grammy categories to 100.
The Best Asian Pop category promises to award excellence in Asian pop music performances, covering K-pop, J-pop, and C-pop [Korean, Japanese, and Chinese pop, respectively], with two eligibility requirements: the work must originate from or be widely recognized within Asian markets, and it must feature meaningful use of one or more Asian languages.
That second requirement has raised questions, especially from fans of the genres. The Academy hasn't published a formal threshold for what "meaningful use" of an Asian language constitutes, leaving the language open to interpretation.
Billboard called Best Asian Pop the most significant of the five new categories.
Why Does This Category Matter for Asian Artists?
At the 68th Annual Grammy Awards earlier this year, Rosé became the first K-pop artist nominated for Record of the Year, KATSEYE landed nominations for Best New Artist and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, and a K-pop tune took home a Grammy for the first time with "Golden" from the wildly popular Netflix movie KPop Demon Hunters winning Best Song Written for Visual Media.
In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Areum Jeong, assistant professor of Korean Studies at Arizona State University, raised an integral question about what those historic firsts actually signified. She argued that songs like "APT." and KATSEYE's "Gabriela" could be interpreted as "a de-territorialized, hybrid idea of K-pop,” and that they seem "less K-pop than other K-pop songs that could have been nominated over the years."
This is what makes the introduction of the Best Asian Pop Music Performance category significant: it's designed specifically to directly recognize K-pop and pop music from other Asian countries.
When Will the First Award Be Given Out?
The first Best Asian Pop Music Performance Grammy will be handed out on February 7, 2027, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, with nominees scheduled to be announced on November 16, 2026. The eligibility window runs from August 31, 2025, through August 28, 2026, meaning any qualifying release dropped within that timeframe could be nominated.
Who Qualifies for Best Asian Pop Music Performance?
The Recording Academy hasn't published a precise percentage threshold for "meaningful use" of Asian languages, leaving the definition looser than the Latin Grammys, where all eligible songs must feature at least 60 percent of its lyrics in Spanish, Portuguese, or any native regional language in order to qualify.
The Grammy rulebook says of the new category: “An Asian language should play a significant role within the song in bilingual or multilingual structures such that the recording is identifiable with that language. Recordings performed entirely in an Asian language are eligible. Incidental or minimal use (e.g., isolated words, adlibs, or brief phrases) does not qualify. Recordings performed entirely in English are not eligible in this category and remain eligible in other appropriate categories.”
This is notable because much contemporary K-Pop is multi-lingual, with no small percentage of English used by many top acts.
What Happens When K-Pop Goes Full English?
As the rulebook clearly states, songs entirely in English are not eligible in the new category, nor are songs where it is the primary language (as English, and not the Asian language, would then be the “identifiable” language of the recording).
This means that a song like BTS member RM's "SWIM," released during the current eligibility window, is unlikely to be nominated. Similarly, Blackpink's recent all-English EP Deadline seems to be out.
Who Are the Early Favorites for the Inaugural Award?
Heading into the first wave of nominations in the category, BTS remain clear favorites to get a nod thanks to their comeback studio album, Arirang. They've previously garnered five Grammy nominations. However, all three of their most Grammy-visible songs, "Dynamite," "Butter," and "My Universe," were recorded with significant portions in English.
The broader field of contenders won't be clear until the eligibility window closes in late August 2026.
What If an Artist Doesn't Qualify? Other Grammy Options
Artists whose releases don't clear the "meaningful use" bar obviously aren't locked out of the Grammys entirely. The general field categories — Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, Best New Artist, and others — have no language requirement.
