The Genre doesn’t stop with the English Language
- Rebecca Tregaskis
- Aug 13
- 5 min read
by Rebecca Tregaskis
On French Rap, the Grammy’s controversial new category and how western dominance of music diminishes appreciation of artistry
Last week I ended up in an Uber running through Paris. My friend and I were adopted by 3 Parisians for the night. In the Uber, one of them strung himself over the seats to connect to the aux. French rap blasted through the speakers. I didn’t understand a word and it was the best music I’ve heard in a good minute.
I’m not a stranger to music outside the English language. I have carefully crafted a playlist which is filled with lyrics that I have to use google translate to understand. Some of my favourite songs are in different languages and most of them I don’t know the meaning of. It doesn’t stop me feeling what the artist intended. If I had limited a genre to only the English lyrics I would have stopped myself from accessing music that can evoke emotions that only music can reach.
The western music industry, mainly dominated by American English-speaking artists, is becoming less and less of a stranger to foreign languages. In March 2026 Spotify reported a surge in non-english music appearing in the global charts. Bad Bunny’s album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS was the first spanish-language album that won Album Of The Year at the Grammy’s. Rosalia’s latest album Lux debuted No.4 on the US Billboard 200 and has a total of 14 languages features. Korean band BTS have been dominating the global and American music industry for over a decade with lyrics solely in Korean.
Non-english speakers are carving out a space for themselves in the global music industry and taking over a space that was traditionally filled with the English language only. However, the announcement of the Best Asian Pop Music Performance category at the Grammy’s has sparked conversation around the separation of music by language - and the division it creates between English-speaking (particularly American) and foreign artists. The category has been viewed skeptically at best and racist at worst.
The group that has been most associated with this controversy is BTS. Grammy nominated five times and currently holding over 25 world records, the group are currently on their sold-out world tour. When the announcement was made it would have been a sure win for BTS, with no other asian artists achieving their success. The group’s latest album ‘ARIRANG’ released earlier this year and topped the Billboard 200 charts for two consecutive weeks. The album marked the return of BTS after their five year hiatus due to mandatory military service. ‘ARIRANG’s success put them in good competition with other top charting artists that will likely appear in the main Grammy categories. However, this new category was viewed by many as an excuse to give BTS a Grammy without having to acknowledge their standing in western culture and music.
Despite the guaranteed win, BTS decided not to play at the Grammy’s this year. A month after the announcement of this new category, all seven members released identical statements via their social media. It stated that they would not be submitting their music for consideration for this year's Grammy’s and they ‘hope our music can be heard and loved for what it is, rather than being divided by region or language.’ It was a clear call out. They did not appreciate their music being separated by language or country.
After BTS announced their BoyCott Recording Academy’s CEO Harvey Mason Jr. shared via media outlets that he is ‘saddened to hear that BTS has chosen not to participate in the Grammy Awards process…’ he went on to defend the new category stating that it is meant to ‘celebrate the depth, diversity and extraordinary growth of pop artistry coming out of Asia’ and rebuked the claim that the Grammy’s is intended to divide artists.
If Asian artists are successful and talented enough to be nominated for a Grammy why shouldn’t it be in the same categories as their western peers. It’s a not so thinly veiled belief that non-english speaking artists should not compete with western artists in the main categories. Many online have pointed out that the Grammy’s did not create a European or British music category for talented English-speaking (and white) artists from outside America. It has also been pointed out that K-Pop and Asian artists have had global standing for a good few years now but the Grammy’s have only created this category during the same year BTS have made their comeback - not during their five year hiatus.
This is not the first time the Grammy’s have been accused of behaving controversially towards BTS. The Grammy’s have featured BTS as central performers and high-profile artists however have never given the group a win - despite the group achieving the same levels of success as their western counter-parts. It has been speculated that the Academy has used BTS’s fame for ratings that have been descending year on year. It is a mainstream opinion that the Grammy’s have used BTS while simultaneously refusing to give them credit for their work. In 2019 Forbes wrote ‘as BTS continue smashing records and the Grammy’s continue to lose relevance, who really needs who?’
BTS are not the first artists to call out the Grammy’s for separating artists. In 2020, Tyler The Creator called his rap nomination a ‘back-handed compliment.’ He told Press after his win that ‘I’m very grateful that what I make can be acknowledged in a world like this, but also it sucks that whenever we – and I mean guys that look like me – do anything that’s genre-bending, they always put it in the rap or urban category.’
Recording Academy member and culture commentator Joey Akan has also been critical of the Grammy’s insistence of dividing up artists. In response to the creation of the Best African Music Performance in 2023, Akan stated that African artists don’t want a category for themselves but rather their talents be recognised beside their peers. The Grammy’s use ‘racialised’ categories to deny artists of colour wins in the main categories. The ‘Best Asian Pop Music Performance’ is an extension of this already existing problem. They don’t want artists of colour in the main categories.
At the end of it all, this new Grammy’s category highlights a problem within the music industry. BTS shows that success and impact is not dictated by language or region. Music’s capability is determined by the connection it can make to the listener and that goes beyond the English language. This, though, threatens the domination the west and America have on the global music industry. The Grammy’s, and the western music industry as a whole, dismissal of BTS is underpinned by racism. It can be dressed up however it wants but The Best Asian Pop Performance is a way to push aside again artists and diminish their success in global music culture. It is saying - you can be the best amongst asian artists but we’ll never put you side by side with western artists.
The majority of artists at the top of the game globally are English speaking or have songs in English but the exceptions to this keep expanding. The refusal to acknowledge artistry outside of English-speaking music is a refusal to appreciate music as a whole. It withholds talent from being recognised and upholds a rigid hierarchy. BTS’s impact is withstanding and non-english music is washing the charts. Music and its impact is not bound within the English-language. The culture needs to adapt.
For now though, while the Grammy’s continue to ignore music in languages other than English, my favourite memory of Paris will be a stranger showing me music with words I couldn’t understand.
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