BTS has spent much of 2023 being relatively quiet as a group, as they’re on a hiatus while some of the members fulfill their mandatory military enlistment. The band has released a couple of tunes, but a full collection is yet to come. While the troupe’s collective presence is temporarily on hold, the individual members of the group have been keeping busy, and several of them have submitted their solo work for Grammy consideration.
Surprisingly, five out of the seven members of BTS are eligible for what is often considered the top prize at the Grammys: Album of the Year. Whether any or all of them end up earning nods in the highly competitive field is difficult to predict, but it’s exceptionally rare to have that many members of one group eligible for the same honor simultaneously.
Among the eligible members, RM is the one with the oldest title among the bunch. His third solo collection, Indigo, was released in December 2022, just within the eligibility window for the forthcoming Grammys. The singer’s effort album saw a resurgence, reaching a new peak at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 after a re-release on physical formats a few weeks after its initial arrival.
Jimin was the first member of BTS to release a solo collection in 2023. His debut EP, Face, peaked at No. 2, narrowly missing the top spot on the Billboard 200 by one position. Face gained momentum in part due to its incredibly popular lead single, the Hot 100 chart-topper “Like Crazy.”
Just a month later, Suga returned with another solo offering of his own, D-Day. D-Day marked Suga’s first solo album, though he had previously charted in America with several solo mixtapes. D-Day also peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, but it didn’t produce a massive hit single, which could potentially affect its chances with Grammy voters.
In August, J-Hope re-released his album Jack in the Box as a deluxe edition, renamed the Hope Edition. This new version included all the music from the original project along with several additional tracks. The physical format release helped it reach the top 10 on the Billboard 200 a year after its initial arrival. Deluxe editions are typically considered new titles by the Recording Academy, making Jack in the Box potentially eligible for Grammy consideration. However, whether it is seen as distinct enough from the previous version is at the discretion of the organization behind the awards.
Fellow BTS singer V narrowly made the cutoff date with his first solo collection, an EP named Layover. This release also peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 but did not produce a massive hit single, unlike several other BTS members in 2023.
The Recording Academy does not release lists of what songs and albums were submitted for what categories, but these five aforementioned projects were all likely eligible to be in the running for the Album of the Year Grammy.
So far, BTS has only been nominated for Album of the Year once. The band was up for the honor alongside Coldplay, as they were credited as a featured act on the song “My Universe,” which appeared on Coldplay’s full-length album Music of the Spheres. They have been up for other prizes, but only this specific honor one time.
Read the full article here