 Nearly five million sales, number one on the Billboard 200, number one top-selling album in the history of Korea. The most popular album in the world of 2019. Outselling Post Malone, Khalid, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and even Billie Eilish. They are the only group since the Beatles to have three number one albums in one year. BTS and their album Map of the Soul Persona is the most successful and influential artist of 2019. BTS widely recognizes the most successful group to ever come out of South Korea. And although they debuted in 2013, they've been exploding in popularity for the last three years. Now it would take hours upon hours to detail all of their amazing achievements, but in addition to all of their feats, they've been champions for many important social issues like bullying, self-esteem, personal identity, and mental health. And because of their activity with social issues, they were even invited to speak at the UN. The Grammys oftentimes recognizes the award for music, the most prestigious award out there, the pinnacle of musical achievement. However, despite being the most successful artist of 2019 and for speaking up about important issues facing our society, the Academy stayed silent in their nomination for BTS. BTS did not receive a single nomination at the Grammys. Blackpink, another powerhouse from South Korea, recently garnering one billion views on their music video, and ranked number one on Forbes' ranking of the top celebrities in Korea for 2019. Although they debuted back in 2016, Blackpink was recognized as a new artist in the United States just this year. They made their US debut at Coachella and were easily, by far, the most popular group on stage. Blackpink is a powerhouse, not just in Korean entertainment, but all over the world. Both BTS and Blackpink are number one and two for the most viewed artist of 2019. Beating out Daddy Yankee, Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, Billie Eilish, with 3.7 billion views. In September, Blackpink was submitted to the Grammys for consideration for best new artists, and in November, they were denied, without even a hint of a nomination. As soon as the news hit, chaos ensued. Twitter did not hold back on their opinions. Let me tell the facts. They'll never nominate BTS for Grammys or Album of the Year. The music isn't in English, and they're biased towards English artists. Grammys are insecure to let minorities win. When was the last time you saw Asians win a Grammy? The show is rigged. However, some users did take a more positive approach. Not getting a Grammy nom won't change the fact that BTS has broken a lot of barriers and shown what diversity is and authenticity through music. Their impact is legendary, and that's on that. I will be forever proud of BTS, no matter what, whether they get Grammy nominations or not. The reality is that they have achieved things and broken barriers that have not been done by people before. Halsey, who worked with BTS on Boy With Love commented, deleting and ignoring all negativity, BTS deserves so many nominations. I am, however, unsurprised that they weren't acknowledged. The US is so far behind on the whole movement, the time will come. So, how does the Grammy voting process even work? The first is the submission process. An artist's song or album is submitted for consideration to the Academy. These are usually submitted either by the artist themselves, the recording label, media company, anyone that represents the artist. The entries are then screened and sorted by 350 different members to make sure the songs are submitted to the correct genre. After it's sorted, the 13,000 Academy voting members vote in their genre of expertise in the first ballot for nominations. After nominations are chosen, the members vote once more to pick the winners. One outraged Twitter user stated, The full nominations list is on the Grammy's website. BTS got nothing. Seriously, robbed and ignored. What the hell? Best-selling album of the year and one of the biggest music acts in the world right now. What more do the Grammy's want for them to be white? Now it is true that the majority of the Grammy winners are in fact white, an overwhelming majority actually, and add that to the fact that most of the voters themselves are also white. In 2018 of the voters, 72% were white and 79% were reported to be male. So the Grammy's do seem to be lacking in diversity, but is this an issue of race? Albeit there have been Asian artists that have been nominated, in fact Bruno Mars has been nominated 27 times and has won 11 times. But he's only part Asian, right? Well, Chalice Yo-Yo Ma has been nominated 27 times and has won an insane amount of 18 times, which would place him 18th all time among most wins. So is it an issue of race or genre? If we look back, the Grammy's have rarely nominated pop groups. In fact, New Kids on the Block, the second most successful boy group of all time with 80 million sales, has only been nominated once. One Direction, a fan favorite from last generation, has had 50 million sales and has had zero nominations. The Spice Girls, the most successful girl group of all time with 85 million sales, have zero nominations. Now if we look back in history, the Grammy's has always been very anti-pop group. The Grammy's stigma is that pop groups aren't really real musicians. They're just people that teens fangirl over that happen to make music. No serious musician would ever be in a pop group, right? Now this should come as a surprise to nobody, but the Grammy's has rarely been about music quality and music impact, but rather music politics. And Blackpink and BTS just happened to be a victim of that politics. So what do you guys think? Did BTS deserve to be nominated? Was this a race issue? Let me know down below in the comments. And hey, remember to subscribe. And as always, chase your dreams and go beyond the scene.