Three-Time Grammy Winner Speaks Out: "BTS Is Right"—New 'Asian Pop' Category Is Segregation, Not Inclusion
Support for BTS's decision to boycott the Grammy Awards continue to grow both within and beyond the music industry. Ricky Kej, a three-time Grammy-winning composer from India, described BTS's decision as "an astonishingly courageous move" in an opinion essay published in the Indian edition of Rolling Stone on August 3 (local time). Referring to Recording Academy's newly introduced Best Asian Pop Music Performance category, Kej criticized it as "a way of isolating Asian artists from te main award categories and confining them to a designated corner on the sidelines." He argued that "this is not genuine inclusion —it is segregation." He also pointed out that the category overlooks Asia's rich and diverse musical traditions by effectively focusing only on K-pop, J-pop, and C-pop. In an exclusive interview with the Indian media outlet News9Live , Kej reitrerated his position. He said BTS had "absolutely made the right decision,"add...