BTS and the Grammys have had a bit of a complicated relationship over the past year. There is a lot to it, so before we recap what happened at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, let’s evaluate the path here thus far.
Why is Army angry with the Grammys?
On the surface, some have said that BTS fans were immature and salty about BTS losing the Grammy in 2021 and that Army needs to get a grip because their favorites won’t always win, and that’s a part of life. Although there’s truth to that and the majority of Army didn’t unleash on social, when you add some context to the situation, you’ll be able to somewhat understand where the fandom was coming from.
Listen to our 64th Annual Grammys episode recap here:
General appeal
The Grammys have a global footprint on artists, and although the vast majority of nominees and winners tend to be Western musicians who mostly sing in English, anyone with a career in the music industry dreams of getting the golden gramophone. BTS stayed up late (their time in KST) in November of 2020 when the nominations were announced, and they shared a very raw video of them with no makeup, in their pajamas, waiting for the moment where it was formally shared whether they were formally being considered for the award they submitted for. Their joy was palpable. Being nominated also entailed a possible invitation to perform at the Grammys, which was another dream of theirs to do as their own stage, and not just as invitees or a feature.
The backstory
The trajectory of BTS to where they are now has been anything but easy. To newer fans, they may look like an overnight success, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The group began forming in 2010 and faced every single hurdle you can imagine, and more. Coming from a small company all but meant that they’d never manage past a certain level, but the way in which these seven men have put in the work and connected with the fans made possible everything that up to that point was considered out of reach.
There’s a saying in the fandom that “What Suga/Yoongi wants, Suga/Yoongi gets.” Suga is one of the members of BTS who is intricately involved in their sound and songwriting process. From the early days of the group, Suga was the one who dared say things the others wouldn’t. During interviews, it became the norm to have Suga share a “wild” dream or goal the group had, and most would laugh at the audacity to think such things would happen, until they started happening. Two of the more recent and relevant (to this piece) are:
- In 2017, BTS was asked about what was up next for them. Suga replied “We want to perform [at the] Billboard Music Awards (BBMAs)”. They did in 2018.
- In 2018, BTS was asked about their next next step. Suga shyly answered “Maybe… Grammy?” while the whole group exhaled and laughed at the sheer thought of it. In early 2020, BTS got to perform on the Grammy stage with Lil Nas X a remix of Old Town Road. In late 2020, BTS was nominated for Best Pop/Duo Group Performance, alongside Lady Gaga/Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber/Quavo, J. Balvin/Bad Bunny/Dua Lipa/Tainy, and Taylor Swift/Bon Iver.
The distance to these goals consistently shortens by the minute with this team.
Where the Recording Academy went wrong
The traction that nominating BTS brought to the Grammys’ on social media was obvious. And boy, did they milk it. The endless tweets promoting their appearance in the months leading up to the grand event got the highest engagement. The commercials promoting BTS performing at the Grammys started rolling. They took advantage of every additional pair of eyes on them – understandably – and the hype they built around them specifically is what made Army get their hopes up even higher than usual, which made the fall from grace of the “Scammys” noisier and more long-lasting.
Two days before the Grammys, the Recording Academy announced the categories that would be announced during the pre-show, amongst which was Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, which was the category BTS was nominated for. To many, this felt like a snub, but ok. Fans were going to tune in at whatever time to watch the members hopefully win.
This is where it starts to feel like rubbing salt on a wound for Army.
With this being such a major moment not just for BTS but for Korean music in general, their music label went ALL out to make this experience feel like the real deal for BTS, because they were unable to travel and be there in person due to the COVID-19 restrictions at the time. BigHit/HYBE built a replica set of the Grammys stage – in just three weeks – to ensure the boys’ show felt the same as everyone else. They also built a stop-and-go red carpet with all the same bells and whistles they would’ve had in person, and an area for them to watch the award from in real time, which was happening during the wee hours of the morning for them, from about 2-5am KST.
And BTS didn’t just keep to the confines of the Grammy replica stage they had built, by the way. They wanted this performance to be epic, and so they filmed part of it on a rooftop with a heli-pad (despite members’ fear of heights), showcasing the best of the Seoul skyline. The whole performance was incredibly memorable.
It’s worth mentioning that by this point, BTS had done 34 performances – yes, 34 – of their hit song Dynamite. It was their first and only English song, it was the “song of the summer” in 2020, and it came to bring positive energy and an uplifting vibe during arguably the worst year most living humans had collectively endured. Everyone wanted a piece of the song, and everyone got one. And the members made it unique every single time.
Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande did one performance of “Rain on Me.” It was fun, it was poppy. It was exactly what you’d expect from puting Gaga and Ariana in the same room. But did that one performance really win head-to-head against every single of the other 30-something Dynamite performances? Arguably, yes. Bryan Rolli briefly summed it up best here.
Alas. We arrive at the time the award is being announced. BTS are on camera as are many other nominees. The announcers call out “Rain on Me” as the winning performance. BTS graciously applauds followed by RM, the leader, taking off his in-ear and saying “I told you.” They were probably preparing themselves to lose, but they also couldn’t help but get excited. It was natural.
There’s one tweet in particular that really summarizes the feeling of the rational part of the fandom in general:
We’ve been researching for the exact number (which we haven’t been able to find), but as soon as BTS lost the award during the Grammys pre-show broadcast, somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of the viewers left the pre-show. It might have been somewhere around a million live viewers at the peak of the broadcast, and it dropped to under 100,000 within seconds of BTS not getting the award.
Another number worth mentioning is that the entire 63rd Grammys ceremony had the lowest ratings in the show’s history, reaching roughly 8.8 million viewers. In contrast, when BTS went live (after the show) to console fans and tell Army that we were their prize, that 17-minute impromptu and unannounced livecast quickly garnered over 10 million views.
The last straw
Again, BTS losing the award to Lady Gaga and Ariana’s performance was likely the right call. Most of the fandom was just feeling heartbroken for the members, because we know how big of a dream this was for them. But the final blow came in the form of the Grammys repeatedly using BTS to try and maintain viewership for the entirety of the show.
Usually when commercial breaks are introduced, the narrator mentions the acts that will immediately follow the break. Sometimes they’ll mention a special tribute earlier/more than once, but with BTS they went overboard. For almost every single commercial break they teased with “Up next, BTS!” which turned out to be the biggest lie of the night, as they didn’t broadcast the BTS performance until the second to last slot. It was a VERY long night for the members who were on very little (if any) sleep, waiting to watch their historic Grammy performance as the first Korean act to perform as nominees, knowing they wanted to go live after the show to let the fandom know they were ok.
Watching their live broadcast was definitely not any real consolation, as the members were low on spirits, and we caught a glimpse of the cake that had been prepared in case they won, which was tossed to the side. Jimin in particular caused a lot of concern as he’s usually a happy-go-lucky type of guy, and between the exhaustion and sadness, he just couldn’t put on a front of being ok.
If anything good came out of this, is that the following morning we got thirst traps from RM and j-hope to try and distract the fandom, which we’ll forever be thankful for.
What’s the take on 2022?
BTS self-submitted for seven categories this time around:
Best Pop Vocal Album (BE)
Engineered Non-Classical Album (BE)
Album of the Year (BE)
Record of the Year (Butter)
Song of the Year (Butter)
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (Butter)
Best Music Video (Permission to Dance)
Despite having plenty more to choose from this time, the Recording Academy only pushed forth one of their submissions as a nomination for 2022. And it just so happens to be the same category they were nominated for (and lost) in 2021. Not only that, but four of these major categories increased the number of nominees from eight to 10. And none of those extra spots were deserved by BTS? We remember having a very animated conversation about this in our group chat, and we know Army was very vocal about this as well across social media platforms.
The same category? Yes, really.
And none of the others? No, not kidding.
Even with the extra spots? SUS.
Leading up to the broadcast, Army was skeptical at best, and flat out disgruntled at worst. The “Scammys” or “Grannies” or “👵” have been under scrutiny not only by/because of BTS, but by artists like Drake, The Weeknd, and many others. There’s very little faith in the selection/voting process, and the questions about the value of artists of color being weighed fairly against their white peers can be seen plainly when counting nominees and winners. The math isn’t mathing. Even Adele agrees Beyonce’s Lemonade should’ve won.
BTS at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards
This year’s Grammys were supposed to take place on January 31st, but due to the Omarion variant being as rampant as it was in December 2021/January of this year, the Recording Academy postponed them until April. The BTS members were excited to be able to perform their own autonomous stage during the ceremony, but their journey here was not without hurdles up until the last second:
- Jin had a finger injury that led to surgery less than a month before, so this would probably prevent him from joining the performance to full capacity.
- j-hope caught covid (with minor symptoms thankfully) less than 10 days before the Grammys, which prevented him from traveling with the group as they made their way to the US.
- Jungkook traveled earlier and tested positive after landing in the US, on Monday March 27th. His quarantine cut it the closest to the long-awaited performance, but thankfully on Saturday night before the Grammys we got the news that he had tested negative and would be allowed to join the group for the performance. Crisis averted.
The members arrived at the red carpet sporting Louis Vuitton as expected, and were the talk of the town with all of the interviewers down the carpet. They were asked about dream collabs, and all pitched in with their own wishlist:
- Suga: Lady Gaga
- Jungkook: Charlie Puth
- V: Olivia Rodrigo
- j-hope: J Balvin
- RM: Snoop Dogg
They were also asked what viewers could expect from their performance, and Suga replied with a line that he’s used before so it didn’t raise any red flags for us, but it should’ve: “Top secret, top secret.”
Smooth like the most beautiful moment in life
Didn’t RM just tell us to get over HYYH just a few days ago? We should’ve known.
The concept of their performance was spies/secret agents who were trying to pull a heist. Mystery-type music started playing. Jungkook dropped from the ceiling, revisiting his “Euphoria” days. Jin, as expected, did the bulk of the performance from the “security booth” to avoid excessive movements. The rest of the members were spread through the crowd, much to their peers’ delight. They were all dressed in black, looking as sexy as ever. Butter started playing, and once on stage, we could see artwork showcased on the digital screen that was slowly disappearing. By the dance break, the artwork was all gone as they danced around the security lasers.
As the the screen became filled with doodles and the members had an outfit upgrade with new sparkly jackets. Just then, new frames started popping up on the screen: still images from their “The Most Beautiful Moment In Life” era (commonly known as HYYH within the fandom). The true art needing protection was their work from 2015, a time that was filled with difficulties for the band as they fought to be respected in the South Korean music industry. This is an era that all of Army is very fond of as it deeply intertwined the alternate “BTS Universe” storylines with their work.
They finished their performance all together (Jin was able to join them at the tail-end of the presentation for lighter dancing), looking incredible and like they owned the place. And they did. The whole venue was on their feet to give them a standing ovation.
Closing out the night
The Recording Academy did not want to get the “Scammys” treatment from Army again, so they did EVERYTHING differently this year. They had them perform early in the show (so we did not hear “up next, BTS!” even once). They weren’t constantly paraded for attention, just the right amount with a scripted moment focused just on them from host Trevor Noah. They included their category in the main broadcast; however, they left it all the way at the end of the show. After all, they did want Army’s viewership numbers to stick around. And so, we waited until the end of the night to find out whether this was the year that Yoongi was going to cross that big item off his checklist: the gramophone.
…Unfortunately, it wasn’t. But that was to be expected. Doja Cat and SZA were favorites for their “Kiss Me More” performance, and the song is an absolute bop, so all the props to them.
As Bryan Rolli and many others have said before, BTS doesn’t need the Grammys, the Grammys needs BTS. If not, their scheduling wouldn’t be so obvious.
Congratulations to BTS on delivering yet another stellar performance, and we hope you enjoyed our recap – both this written component as well as our special podcast episode!
What did you think about how the Grammys handled the show logistics in regards to BTS this year? Let us know in the comments!
Do you like to watch? Our Grammys recap episode is up on YouTube!
(YouTube’s algorithm really know how to pull a thumbnail huh? Our faces say it all 😂)
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