On Jan. 5, the Recording Academy announced the Grammys have been postponed indefinitely because of the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Now, the question is back up in the air of whether or not BTS will attend and perform live. The band is currently on a hiatus, but they originally planned to attend the Grammys, which Jungkook and RM shared during an early December VLIVE. It looks like those plans are no longer a sure thing now, though.
After their Permission to Dance shows in Los Angeles in November and December, BTS announced they’d be taking a break. Big Hit’s announcement on Dec. 5 said the group members would be spending the holidays with their family as they got ready for their 2022 engagements. Those include a new album that doesn’t yet have a release date and a concert in Seoul in March. With Jungkook and RM’s insight, though, fans found out the group would be in Los Angeles again to perform at the Grammys come January, where BTS is nominated for Best Pop Duo or Group Performance for “Butter.” Now that the show, which was originally scheduled for Jan. 31, has been postponed with no new date yet on the books, Big Hit has understandably scrapped plans for BTS to travel to the States for the show for now.
In a Jan. 6 statement, the management company told Korean news outlet Newsen, “We were preparing to attend the Grammys but stopped discussing plans after hearing about the postponement of the ceremony.” The statement further clarified that the March concert in Seoul is still planned to go on as scheduled. And while the group is still on break, they’ll be back to work to prepare for it soon and will be releasing an album in 2022.
At the moment, there’s no indication either way whether BTS will attend and perform at the rescheduled ceremony. If the Recording Academy follows the same schedule as 2021’s postponed show (which took place in March), chances are they won’t be able to attend in person because of their Seoul concert slated for March. However, considering how huge of an artist BTS is, it wouldn’t be a stretch to think the Recording Academy would be eager to pick a date for the ceremony that would allow BTS to attend. According to Variety, the earliest opening at Crypto.com Arena (the Grammy Awards’ venue) that would accommodate the ceremony isn’t until June anyway. In other words, there’s still a chance BTS could attend and perform at the show despite this hiccup in scheduling.
All that being said, with the coronavirus pandemic constantly changing, it’s hard to say when the show may happen or if there will even be an audience, so only time will tell what BTS’ participation will look like.
