Boy band BTS have become the first K-Pop act to receive a Grammy nomination.
The boyband’s recent single ‘Dynamite’ is up for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2021 awards, competing with the likes of Justin Bieber.
“Thank you to everyone who listened to our music and empathised with it in difficult times,” the band wrote in a translated tweet.
“Above all, it is you ARMY that made the miracle of (us becoming) a Grammy-nominated artist. Thank you and love you always.”
힘든 시기, 우리의 음악을 들어주시고 공감해주신 모든 분들께 감사합니다. 무엇보다 그래미 후보 아티스트라는 기적을 만들어주신 건 아미 여러분입니다. 늘 감사하고 사랑합니다.
Thank you @RecordingAcad for this great honor!— 방탄소년단 (@BTS_twt) November 24, 2020
In the wake of BTS’ nomination, the band appeared on The Late Late Show With James Corden last night (November 24), with J-Hope revealing he was asleep when the news came in, which explains why he wasn’t in a video shared of the band discovering the nomination.
“I cried when I woke up,” he told Corden.
Reviewing the Grammy-nominated ‘Dynamite’, which broke the record for most YouTube views in 24 hours upon its release in August, NME wrote:
“Life might not be as “sweet as honey” as BTS sing right now but, on this song, they take you to a place where that feeling is viscerally, dazzlingly real.
Given everything that’s been thrown at us over the last six months, why would you turn your nose up at that?”
Elsewhere following the Grammys nominations reveal, Justin Bieber has taken exception to the ‘pop’ categorisation of his latest album ‘Changes’, writing:
“‘Changes’ was and is an R&B album. It is not being acknowledged as an R&B album which is very strange to me.”
The Weeknd, meanwhile, branded the Recording Academy “corrupt” after he failed to receive any nominations for the 2021 awards for his latest album, ‘After Hours’.
Teyana Taylor is also unhappy, citing the all-male list for R&B album, and saying “all I see is dick in this category”.
힘든 시기, 우리의 음악을 들어주시고 공감해주신 모든 분들께 감사합니다. 무엇보다 그래미 후보 아티스트라는 기적을 만들어주신 건 아미 여러분입니다. 늘 감사하고 사랑합니다.
Thank you @RecordingAcad for this great honor!— 방탄소년단 (@BTS_twt) November 24, 2020
Another revelation from the 2021 Grammys nominations comes as, for the first time in the awards’ history, only female and female-fronted acts are nominated for Best Rock Performance.
Made up of entirely solo women or female-fronted bands, nominees for Best Rock Performance include Fiona Apple for ‘Shameika’, Phoebe Bridgers for ‘Kyoto’, ‘The Steps’ by Haim, ‘Stay High’ by Brittany Howard, Grace Potter’s ‘Daylight’, and ‘Not’ by Big Thief, the band fronted by Adrianne Lenker.