Grammy retaliation?... BTS performance videos wiped from official website

[Financial News] Soon after BTS announced that it would boycott submissions for next year's 69th Grammy Awards, the group's signature performance videos were removed from the Grammy Awards' official website, sparking controversy.
At present, the official Grammy Awards website no longer features the stage videos for BTS's 2021 performance of "Dynamite" or its 2022 performance of "Butter." Both videos are still available on BTS's official YouTube channel.
Some have raised suspicions that the video removals were a form of retaliation by the Grammy Awards following the boycott announcement. Earlier, BTS said in a joint statement from all seven members, "We hope music is heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language," as it explained its decision to decline submissions.
The background to that decision includes the Recording Academy's newly created "Best Asian Pop Music Performance" category. Critics said the rule was discriminatory, pointing to the eligibility requirement that Asian-language lyrics be included and the timing of the announcement, which came just two months before the submission deadline, as it appeared to target BTS's upcoming full-length album "Arirang," which is centered on English-language songs.
In response, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. explained, "The intention is simply to celebrate the diversity of Asian pop music, and there is no discriminatory motive."
As news of the video removals spread, fans and global artists began voicing backlash and support. On social networking services such as X (formerly Twitter), a hashtag campaign emerged around the message, "You can erase it from the site, but you can't erase it from history." Fellow artists, including Epik High's Tablo and "K-Pop Demon Hunters" director Maggie Kang, also expressed support for BTS's principled stance.
On the other hand, it is also possible that the videos were taken down as part of the Grammy Awards' routine cleanup of older performance clips, along with past stage videos from other artists.
The Grammy Awards have not issued any separate official statement on the circumstances or criteria behind the removals, so the controversy is expected to continue for the time being.


[email protected] Moon Young-jin Reporter