BTS, a South Koren K-pop boy band famous for their addictive and catchy upbeat songs made history in 2019 as the first K-pop group to present at the 61st Grammy Awards. Two years later, they made history again as the first K-pop group to perform at the 63rd Grammys. This year, they are slated to perform again — although that may or may not actually happen as one of the members, Jungkook recently tested positive for COVID-19. Regardless, if the K-pop group takes home the one award for which they are nominated — Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for their song “Butter” — they will break yet another record.
With all the success they have seen in recent years, including being named the world’s top musical act, it might look like their rise to fame has been overnight, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The boy band became official in 2013 and has built an army of fans all around the world since then, but it took many years of strict musical training to get there. Like the all-girl K-pop group BLACKPINK, BTS trained with a South Koren entertainment company, Big Hit Entertainment, for years before officially forming. They endured years of strenuous lessons in singing, dancing, acting, and media training, much like that of an American college student at a four-year University. One look at the boy band on stage and you’ll see a meticulously polished performance and clear, confident vocals.
So has BTS won a Grammy Award before?
At this point, you would think the boy band has landed a Grammy by now, but the truth is they haven’t. At least not yet. Their single “Dynamite” from the 2020 album “Be” debuted at No. 1 on the US Billboard “Hot 100” chart, a first for any K-pop song in American music history. Since then they’ve continued to break records, from Grammy Award nominations to Guinness World Records. So why haven’t they been awarded a Grammy yet? Well, as Halsey said in her Twitter post, “The US is so far behind on the whole movement. The time will come.”
Maybe this will be the year for BTS, but regardless, the boy band has no intention of slowing down. A new album by them is rumored to drop this March or April, which will include a surprising collaboration with Snoop Dogg, so if this isn’t the year that BTS snags a Grammy Award (although we have a good feeling), next year looks even brighter. As Halsey said, “the time will come.”
Has any K-pop group ever won a Grammy?
K-pop in America has become more popular than ever because of BTS. That’s not to say it hasn’t been around. In fact, quite the opposite is true. PSY’S 2012 “Gangnam Style” may have educated the ordinary layperson about the term K-pop, but the music genre has been around in America long before then. Think back to the mid-2000s. Remember BoA, Se7ven, and Rain?
What was once a niche genre has become a global industry bringing up over $5 billion. In 2020, K-pop inserted itself even further into the mainstream Western culture with the collaboration from Lady Gaga and BLACKPINK’s in the song “Sour Candy”, a track that appeared on Gaga’s album Chromatica. Around that time, BTS was singing in American arenas K-pop artists had never sung in before and releasing hits that tallied up more views than Taylor Swift on YouTube.
The K-pop fandom is so large (and devoted) that fans even rallied behind Western movements in 2020 when they supposedly tried to sabotage Donald Trump’s presidency by reserving thousands of seats for an Oklahoma rally and then never showed up, leaving those thousand seats empty. It goes to show the dedication behind the fan base and how much they’ve truly taken the West by storm.
And still, no K-pop group has ever won a Grammy Award. Whether that’ll change this year with a win from BTS is yet to be seen. Will the K-pop boy band make history yet again? Find out at the 64th Grammy Awards airing April 3, 2022, at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET.
Curious how you can watch this year’s award ceremony? Find out here.
