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BTS hits the Grammy Awards red carpet on Sunday in Los Angeles. (provided by Big Hit Entertainment)

The K-pop group BTS lost out on this year’s Grammy Awards.

The Recording Academy (NARAS), which oversees the Grammys, held a Premiere Ceremony on Sunday ahead of its 63rd award ceremony in Los Angeles. During the Premiere Ceremony, it announced that the pairing of Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande had won the award in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category.

One of several subcategories in the pop genre, the Best Pop/Duo Group Performance award is given to a musical act that realizes outstanding artistic achievements with pop vocal or musical performance in the form of a duo, group or collaboration.

BTS was nominated in the category for its song “Dynamite,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in the US last year — a first for a South Korean musical act.

The other nominees in the category were J Balvin, Dua Lipa, Bad Bunny and Tainy for “Un Dia (One Day),” Justin Bieber and Quavo for “Intentions,” Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande for “Rain on Me,” and Taylor Swift and Bon Iver for “Exile.” This marked the first time a South Korean popular music act had ever been nominated for a Grammy.

With BTS missing out on an award that day, it will have to wait until next time to complete the trifecta of top music awards in the US. At the American Music Awards and Billboard Music Awards — which are considered along with the Grammys to represent the three main music awards in the US — BTS has won awards for the past three and four years straight, respectively.

“For the conservative Grammy selection committee members, the fact that BTS is a foreign act rather than an American one is an inevitable disadvantage,” said critic Kim Young-dae.

“Also, the collaboration by Lady Gaga and Ariane Grande that beat out BTS for the award was excellent,” he noted.

Kim also said, “The fact that BTS were nominated and performed on their own this year — after being invited for an interview at a Grammy Museum event in 2018, presenting an award at the 2019 Grammys ceremony, and giving a congratulatory performance for the ceremony last year — signifies that they’ve been progressing well through the stages bringing them closer to a Grammy.”

“It’s meaningful in the sense that they’ve laid the groundwork for continued nominations going forward, and even the possibility of winning,” he added.

At the Premiere Ceremony the same day, Korean-American violist Richard Yongjae O’Neill won the award in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category. He was honored for a performance of Christopher Theofanidis’ “Concerto for Viola and Chamber Orchestra” performed with the Albany Symphony and conducted by David Alan Miller.

By Suh Jung Min, music correspondent

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