Korean pop sensation BTS have been invited to join the Recording Academy as part of a drive to diversify the group that chooses the annual Grammy Awards. The seven-member boy band, which has led a <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/music/k-pop-girl-group-momoland-is-coming-to-perform-in-dubai-1.793916">K-pop music</a> wave in the United States and beyond, are among some 1,300 artists, writers and music industry professionals invited to become members of the Los Angeles-based Recording Academy this week. Should they accept, the band will be eligible to vote in the 2020 <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/music/will-diversity-win-at-this-year-s-grammy-awards-1.823583">Grammy Awards</a>, the highest honours in the music business, the Recording Academy said on Thursday. The chief executive of their record label, Bang Si-hyuk of Big Hit Entertainment, was also among the invitees, the band said in a statement. BTS first formed in Seoul in 2013 and broke through into the US pop market in 2017 becoming the first Korean group to win a Billboard music award. The band was nominated for their album <em>Love Yourself: Tear</em> for the 2019 Grammy Awards and made their first appearance at the ceremony in February. The Recording Academy has undertaken a series of steps in the past few years to make Grammy nominees more diverse and to expand a membership that has traditionally been dominated by older males. It said that 49 per cent of those invited this week were women, and 51 per cent were under age 40.