The 2026 Grammys will take place on Sunday, Feb. 1 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The nominations were announced on Nov. 7, and the eligibility period runs from Aug. 31, 2024, to Aug. 30, 2025. Note that Taylor Swift’s most recent album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” does not fall within this eligibility period, and so cannot be nominated until the 2027 Grammys.
The “big three” in the Grammys world are the categories of Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Album of the Year. While these categories seem similar and often see some overlap, they acknowledge three very unique aspects of the music-making process.
Song of the Year acknowledges the composition of a song, giving acknowledgement to songwriters. This year, “Abracadabra” by Lady Gaga, “Anxiety” by Doechii, “APT.” by Rosé and Bruno Mars, “DtMF” by Bad Bunny, “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters” by HUNTR/X: EJAE, Audrey Nuna and REI AMI, “luther” by Kendrick Lamar and SZA, “Manchild” by Sabrina Carpenter and “WILDFLOWER” by Billie Eilish were nominated.
Record of the Year acknowledges the recording of a song by the artists, producers and sound engineer behind the work. Nominations this year include “DtMF” by Bad Bunny, “Manchild” by Sabrina Carpenter, “Anxiety” by Doechii, “WILDFLOWER” by Billie Eilish, “Abracadabra” by Lady Gaga, “luther” by Kendrick Lamar and SZA, “The Subway” by Chappell Roan and “APT.” by Rosé and Bruno Mars.
Clearly there is a lot of overlap between these categories, Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Such overlap is not uncommon to see, but it is especially strong this year. 2005 was the first and only year the categories of Song of the Year and Record of the Year had no overlap since the Grammys were established in 1959.
Finally, Album of the Year honors the full body of work of an album, rather than a single song like Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Nominations include “DtMF” by Bad Bunny, “SWAG” by Jusin Bieber, “Man’s Best Friend” by Sabrina Carpenter, “Let God Sort Em Out” by Clipse: Pusha T and Malice, “Mayhem” by Lady Gaga, “GNX” by Kendrick Lamar, “Mutt” by Leon Thomas and “CHROMAKOPIA” by Tyler, The Creator.
While these big three categories remain each year, other categories come and go as the recording academy sees fit. This year, they chose to add categories for Best Traditional Country Album and Best Album Cover.
The full list of nominations can be viewed here.
This was a breakout year for K-pop within the Song of the Year category with both “Golden” from “KPOP Demon Hunters” and “APT.” receiving nominations. However, BLACKPINK did not receive any group nominations. Having never previously won a Grammy, this group could be eligible for the Best New Artist category, or the success of their song “JUMP” — at nearly 400 million streams on Spotify — could have warranted a nomination.
The Best New Artist category featured many who have seen breakouts this year, but the genre distribution was incredibly skewed. With every nomination in the category going to pop artists, rap and country were left without representation, and this is not for a lack of people who deserved nominations.
While this category often faces criticism stating the nominees are not really new artists, it is important for fans to remember that this category has historically been an acknowledgement of up-and-coming artists who have had breakthrough years rather than artists who are truly new. This explains the inclusion of artists like Alex Warren, Lola Young and Olivia Dean along with recent winners such as Chappell Roan.
Much to some fans’ dismay, many predict that Alex Warren will take home this category of Best New Artist after winning it at the Video Music Awards this fall. His song “Ordinary” has over a billion streams on Spotify and saw ramped-up success across social media platforms this year.
As for who got snubbed, some fans were surprised to see Sombr’s “Back to Friends” left out of categories such as Song of the Year or Record of the Year. However, it is not very common to see artists receive nominations in both the category of Best New Artist and one of the big three.
Additionally, others were surprised to see Lorde receiving zero nominations after her release of “Virgin” this year. Unfortunately for fans, “Virgin” just did not see the streaming numbers of other Lorde albums, and did not compare in streaming numbers to songs and albums that did receive nominations.
Finally, The Weeknd did not receive any nominations. After being bitter about not receiving any nominations for “After Hours” and the accompanying single “Blinding Lights” in the 2021 Grammys, he publicly shamed the recording academy, kicking off a longer-running controversy.
Without Beyoncé or Taylor Swift being nominated this year, there are fewer Grammy records to break, but that does not mean there are none. Kendrick Lamar is the person to keep an eye on this season as he leads the number of 2026 nominations with nine. With his 22 past wins and current nominations, he has the ability to surpass Kayne West’s 24 wins and Jay-Z’s 25 to set the record for rapper with the most Grammy wins. Additionally, if he wins Song of the Year or Record of the Year, this would be the second consecutive year in a row for Lamar, as he took home these categories for his song “Not Like Us” last year. Winning Album of the Year would make him the first solo male rapper to do so.
Regardless of who wins Album of the Year, it will be their first time doing so. While some of the nominees have had previous nominations in the category, none will be a repeat winner.
With many of the biggest artists not releasing music in this eligibility period, we are seeing some newer faces in the nominations and fewer records to be set. Nevertheless, this season promises to award individuals who have put in the hours in the music industry.
