> At a Glance
> – Rosé becomes the first K-pop act ever nominated for Record of the Year with her Bruno Mars collab “APT.”
> – Katseye scores a Best New Artist nod, while the fictional HUNTR/X lands in Song of the Year for “Golden”
> – All four major Grammy categories now feature Korean-pop acts for the first time
> – Why it matters: The shift signals U.S. pop’s reliance on global sounds after a 2025 slump in domestic hits
K-pop finally cracked the Grammys’ big leagues. Next month’s 2026 ceremony will hand out trophies in the four headline fields where Korean acts have never before competed, and analysts say the timing is no accident.
The Nominees Making History
Rosé’s viral drinking-game anthem “APT.” leads the charge in Record of the Year, while the same track plus Katseye’s “Gabriela” and HUNTR/X’s “Golden” battle in Pop Duo/Group Performance. Katseye, a multinational girl group built by HYBE (the company behind BTS), also vies for Best New Artist.
- First time any K-pop release has broken into the Big Four Grammy races
- All three contenders sing mainly in English, a move scholars say helped them slip past the Academy’s long-standing resistance to non-English lyrics
- “Golden” arrives via Netflix’s animated film KPop Demon Hunters, blurring the line between cinema soundtrack and chart hit
Why Now? Industry Slump Meets Global Pop Shift
Music journalist Tamar Herman points to a thin 2025 for U.S. pop: Luminate’s mid-year report showed new-music streams lagging behind 2024 with no home-grown smashes dominating charts. “We’re looking externally,” she says, because “K-pop has been really good for a really long time.”
Areum Jeong, Korean-studies scholar at Arizona State, calls the nods more “post-idol K-pop” than traditional Korean fare:
> “The songs seem less K-pop than other K-pop songs that could have been nominated over the years.”
Mathieu Berbiguier of Carnegie Mellon ties the breakthrough to sheer mainstream reach:
> “A massive Netflix film, a Bruno Mars collab, a global Netflix series-K-pop is no longer niche.”
Bernie Cho, head of Seoul agency DFSB Kollective, frames it as evolution:
> “The ‘K’ is still there, but some might argue it’s silent.”
| Nominee | Format | Korean Lyrics | Mainstream Hook |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rosé & Bruno Mars | Collab | Minimal | Mars’ Grammy history |
| Katseye | Girl group | English | Netflix docu-series |
| HUNTR/X | Fictional trio | English | Netflix animated film |
Will They Actually Win?
Opinions split. Cho predicts multiple trophies: “It’s going to be who and how many.” Berbiguier gives “Golden” the best shot, while Herman says victory for a fictional act would ignite debate over what even counts as K-pop.
Key Takeaways
- The Recording Academy’s resistance to Korean lyrics appears to be softening only when English dominates the track
- A weak year for U.S. pop created space for global sounds to break through
- Whether these wins register as true K-pop victories depends on how strictly one defines the genre
The 68th Grammy Awards air Feb. 1 from Los Angeles. A trophy lifted by any of these acts would end Korea’s 27-year wait for a Korean-pop Grammy win.
