BTS’s withdrawal from the Grammys may have caused an uproar on the awards scene, but it’s not the first time music artists have decided to sit on the sidelines.
In recent years, acts have opted out of consideration for a variety of reasons, some of which match the boy band’s issue with their placement within a sub-genre.
As the music awards world reels from the major move by BTS, here’s a look back at other examples of artists snubbing the Grammys.
Morgan Wallen
The most recent headline-grabbing pull-out from the Grammys came around the same time last year, as the eligibility window was closing, but was for a very different reason. In the years before his latest record, I’m the Problem, controversial country singer Morgan Wallen ran afoul of various awards groups by — among other things — shouting the N-word on video and throwing a chair off the roof of a Nashville bar. Other awards bodies banned him for a year, but the Grammys just continued to ignore his work, as it largely had until that point. When I’m the Problem became a big country hit, Wallen decided not to submit it for Grammys consideration without explanation.
Silk Sonic
The R&B duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak announced their decision to skip Grammys consideration in a very Silk Sonic way. “We truly put our all on this record, but Silk Sonic would like to gracefully, humbly and most importantly, sexually, bow out of submitting our album this year,” Mars told Rolling Stone. “We hope we can celebrate with everyone on a great year of music and partake in the party. Thank you for letting Silk Sonic thrive.” Like Wallen, Silk Sonic didn’t offer much of an explanation for the decision, which came as somewhat of a surprise for a group that had previously performed at the Grammys and won four.
The Weeknd
In 2020, the Weeknd received exactly zero Grammy nominations for his album After Hours, which included the hit “Blinding Lights,” and the singer really, really didn’t like that. He lashed out at the Record Academy, calling the nominations process “corrupt” on social media and instructing his team to no long submit him for consideration. A short time later, the Academy revised its nominating processes to address some of the issues raised (including eliminating nomination review committees in favor of Academy-wide voting). And in 2025, the Weeknd finally ended his four-year boycott, making a surprise appearance at the awards show, when he was once again nominated for Best Melodic Rap Performance.
Drake
Just like the Weeknd, Drake went on more of a break with the Academy than officially breaking up. In 2021, he withdrew his album Certified Lover Boy from consideration, but then submitted Her Loss a couple of years later. There’s no official word on how Drake feels about the Grammys essentially throwing every award at a diss track about him, though.
Sinéad O’Connor
The iconic Irish singer put her own spin on snubbing the Grammys in 1991 when she released an open letter to the organization after being nominated. “They acknowledge mostly the commercial side of art,” she wrote about the awards. “They respect mostly material gain, since that is the main reason for their existence. And they have created a great respect among artists for material gain — by honoring us and exalting us when we achieve it, ignoring for the most part those of us who have not.”
