BTS will not enter its music for the 69th Grammy Awards, the group said Wednesday, a decision many are calling a direct response to the Recording Academy’s newly launched Best Asian Pop Music Performance category. All seven members posted matching statements to their individual Instagram stories.”We have decided not to submit our music to the Grammys this year,” the group wrote. “We hope music can be heard and loved as music itself, rather than being divided by region or language.” The statement closed with thanks to fans and ARMY.No further reasoning was given in the post, The Korea Herald noted, and the decision caught many off guard, since BTS members have long named a Grammy win as a top career goal.In June, the Recording Academy rolled out five fresh categories for the next ceremony, among them Best Asian Pop Music Performance, built for K-pop, J-pop and C-pop acts whose work carries “meaningful use of one or more Asian languages.” BTS was seen as a near-certain nominee there, riding a strong comeback year after finishing mandatory military service.That comeback has been commercially massive. The band’s fifth album, Arirang, out in March, opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 641,000 units sold, the strongest group debut week in over ten years, while its single Swim reached No. 1 on the Hot 100.The Recording Academy has stayed silent so far. Submissions for the 69th Grammy Awards opened July 7 and close in late August, with the ceremony scheduled for February.