South Korean boy group Stray Kids will sit out the 2027 Grammy Awards after choosing not to submit music for consideration, placing another major K-pop act outside the upcoming ceremony.
The group’s agency, JYP Entertainment, confirmed that Stray Kids did not enter any music before the Grammy submission deadline.
“Stray Kids did not submit any work to the Grammys,” the agency said, without giving a reason for the decision.
The brief statement came after BTS announced in July that its seven members would also not submit music for consideration at the 69th Grammy Awards.
The move comes amid an ongoing dispute over the Recording Academy’s decision to introduce a new Best Asian Pop Music Performance category.
The Academy will debut the category at the February 7, 2027 ceremony despite criticism from some artists and fans.
BTS directly linked its own decision to concerns about separating music according to geography and language.
“We hope that music will be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language,” the group said when announcing that it would not submit music for the 2027 ceremony.
The timing, however, has drawn attention because the Recording Academy recently confirmed that it would proceed with the Asian Pop category despite the backlash.
The new category recognises artistic excellence in Asian pop performances originating from or widely recognised within Asian markets.
The eligibility rules cover music from genres including K-pop, J-pop and C-pop, with recordings required to make “meaningful use” of one or more Asian languages.
The Recording Academy has presented the category as an expansion of Grammy recognition for music that has become increasingly influential around the world.
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said the category was created because Asian pop had become a significant force in global music.
“Asian pop music is one of the most significant and sustained forces in the global music industry,” Mason said when the category was announced. He pointed to K-pop, J-pop and Mandopop as examples of music whose global impact continues to grow.
However, the category has also faced criticism from people who argue that a dedicated Asian award could separate artists by geography or language instead of allowing them to compete more broadly.
The Recording Academy has rejected the suggestion that the new category prevents Asian artists from competing for the Grammys’ biggest awards.
Mason previously stressed that artists submitting in a genre category can still compete in the General Field categories, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
“More categories mean more artists’ work is recognized,” Mason said in July, adding that the Asian Pop category was intended to expand recognition rather than divide artists.
The Academy later confirmed that the category would go ahead after holding discussions with members of the Asian music community.
Mason acknowledged that some people opposed the category, but said the Academy also heard strong support for keeping it.
“We heard candid feedback from people in our community who don’t support the continuation of this category,” Mason said. “But by far, the loudest feedback we heard was from people who were enthusiastic supporters of the category.”
Stray Kids’ absence is significant because the group has become one of K-pop’s biggest forces in the US market.
The group has topped the Billboard 200 nine times, placing it behind only The Beatles among groups with the most No. 1 albums on the chart. Its latest release, THIS & THAT, also reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
All eight members — Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin and I.N — also received invitations to become Recording Academy voting members in 2026.
The group had previously spoken about its approach to awards.
At an August press conference, Hyunjin said the members had never made awards or records their central objective.
“We have never once set award results or records as our goal,” he said, adding that the group’s priority was for its fans to be “happy and satisfied.”
