Grammys 2026: State of the Race

There are many causes to be nostalgic for the great previous days of 2024. However for the Grammy Awards, there’s been one particularly huge change.

Final 12 months was full-on Famous person Season: There have been new albums from Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Billie Eilish; the explosion of breakout sensations Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter; a real cultural phenomenon with Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” 5 years after increasing the nominations within the Massive 4 classes from 5 to eight, the lists had been bursting on the seams.

This 12 months, not as a lot. Some huge weapons had been nonetheless right here, however the outcomes usually underdelivered. The shortage of any equal to the Taylor-versus-Bey showdown was solely amplified when the most important vendor (and, in his personal odd approach, greatest story) of 2025, Morgan Wallen, determined he wouldn’t be submitting his music for Grammy consideration.

This lower in firepower, although, does open the chance for some traditionally vital winners. Lamar’s GNX (a late 2024 launch) isn’t his most formidable mission — see his earlier album of the 12 months nods for To Pimp a Butterfly or Mr. Morale & the Massive Steppers — nevertheless it was effectively obtained each commercially and critically and is extra accessible than these larger conceptual swings. With 57 nominations and 22 trophies over time, is it lastly time for Lamar to take house the large prize?

If GNX had been to win album of the 12 months, it will be, astonishingly, the primary hip-hop mission to hold the class in additional than 20 years, since OutKast gained for Speakerboxxx/The Love Under in 2004. (Tyler, the Creator’s experimental, private Chromakopia feels just like the style’s different contender for a nomination.) As well as, Okay.Dot’s “Luther” duet with SZA spent 13 weeks at No. 1 and is a simple guess for file and track of the 12 months nominations.

The opposite groundbreaking choice this 12 months can be honoring Dangerous Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos as album of the 12 months. His 2022 Un Verano Sin Ti is the one Spanish-language album to ever obtain a nomination within the class, and a win can be an enormous step within the recognition of Latin pop’s ongoing ascension. Debí Tirar Más Fotos is each a business smash and among the many most critically regarded albums of Dangerous Bunny’s profession. If he can’t win right here, may a Latin album ever come away with the highest prize?

So there are methods for this 12 months’s ceremonies to salvage a weaker subject and make a robust assertion — however there’s all the time the concern that Grammys gonna Grammy. Coldplay solely appear to develop into extra polarizing because the years go by, however Moon Music was their fastest-selling album in additional than 15 years. Brandi Carlile and Elton John’s Who Believes in Angels? is the type of cross-generational effort that would appear to hit a Grammy candy spot, although it might not have reached the heights that will take it over the end line.

The opposite greatest title releases this 12 months — from people who’ve been nominated and even gained album of the 12 months — weren’t disappointing, however they didn’t in the end really feel like culture-setting moments on their very own. The Grammys have by no means simply been a charts sport, although robust gross sales definitely don’t damage.

Woman Gaga’s Mayhem and The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow had been closely hyped No. 1 albums that arrange blockbuster excursions however lacked a lot business endurance on the charts. (It’s ironic that The Weeknd’s first album after protesting after which making peace with the Grammys will not be a significant participant.) Lorde’s Virgin had its fervent supporters even when it didn’t appear to completely register, debuting at No. 2 this summer time and swiftly dropping down the charts afterward.

On the extra purely pop facet, Man’s Finest Good friend by Sabrina Carpenter (the one member of the category of 2024 to return with a brand new LP this go-round) and Justin Bieber’s Swag appear poised for album of the 12 months nods. Her “Manchild” and his “Daisies” are additionally contenders within the file and track of the 12 months classes.

And as an overall-good-vibes album of the 12 months risk, although Jelly Roll’s Fantastically Damaged was shut out of the CMA nominations (following an entertainer of the 12 months nod final 12 months), the dude has been so omnipresent — collaborating with Snoop Dogg, Marshmello and Brandon Lake; exhibiting up in every single place from Tulsa King to the WWE — that the overall Grammy voter might discover him irresistible.

So, for higher or worse, there are nonetheless loads of huge names to fill the nomination slots. However there will definitely be a gap for some critics’ favorites and worthy rising stars, throughout a variety of genres, to get some Grammy love. Potential contenders embody Bon Iver’s Sable, Fable, FKA Twigs’ Eusexua, Laufey’s A Matter of Time, Tyler Childers’ Snipe Hunter and Dijon’s Child.

Within the file and track of the 12 months classes, a number of girls acquainted from latest finest new artist competition are prone to return to the poll. Final 12 months’s winner, Roan, launched “The Giver” and “The Subway” — once more, neither of which had been completely the smashes that may have been anticipated however both of which may get a lock. Doechii’s “Denial Is a River” and 2024 contender Gracie Abrams’ “That’s So True” also needs to flip up.

As for newcomers, Alex Warren’s “Bizarre” spent 10 weeks at No. 1, and, particularly in track of the 12 months, these energy ballads nonetheless depend for one thing. Rosé (see cowl story on web page 40) had one of many greatest tracks of the 12 months in “Apt.” with perennial Grammy favourite Bruno Mars, and the track absolutely will get an extended look.

Ravyn Lenae’s “Love Me Not” will likely be a kind of timing judgment requires voters: It was launched all the way in which again in Might 2024 however was not submitted for final 12 months’s awards, and it was such a gradual construct that it didn’t peak till going viral on TikTok later within the 12 months. In the meantime, Eilish, as all the time, has a shot with “Wildflowers.”

One of many extra attention-grabbing style competitions to look at — and territory that has been genuinely missing in curiosity lately — would be the rock classes. Let’s recall that eventually 12 months’s ceremony, the prize for finest rock efficiency went to The Beatles and finest rock album to The Rolling Stones. However few of the main lights in rock’s biggest technology put out new music this 12 months, nor did any of the Gen X juggernauts — Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam, Inexperienced Day, Pink Scorching Chili Peppers — which have dominated the proceedings for some time.

As a substitute, we witnessed a resurgence in rock’s recognition in 2025, with Turnstile, Ghost and Sleep Token all racking up hit albums. Feminine-fronted acts together with Moist Leg and Wolf Alice additionally launched modern data, and even the bands nearer to “legacy” standing with vital new music — The Remedy, Deftones, the revamped Linkin Park — really feel more energizing than a easy return to the standard suspects.

Most intriguing is how these teams will likely be submitted among the many rock, steel and different classes, distinctions that solely get extra complicated as time marches on.

Talking of which, the large class shake-up this 12 months is the introduction of finest conventional nation album, which is alternately being seen as a response to Beyoncé’s finest nation album victory final 12 months or just catching as much as related subdivisions in R&B and different genres (extra on web page 34).

Clearly, nation music has expanded to the purpose the place Cody Johnson, Zach High and The Pink Clay Strays coexist alongside Bailey Zimmerman or Shaboozey. But when we’re making a distinction, how “conventional” are the brand new boundary markers? What’s the minimal required pedal metal and twang? Chris Stapleton is fairly rattling old fashioned and in addition as huge a star because the style has, and you can say the identical about Luke Combs and even Megan Moroney. And at what level does conventional nation cross over into the Americana class — the place will 27-time Grammy winner Alison Krauss discover Arcadia, her wonderful reunion with Union Station, turning up?

Genres and definitions are ever-evolving, and it’s wholesome for the Grammys to take probabilities even when it’s unclear the place they could lead. Let’s hope that in a 12 months gentle on megastars and drama, there’s higher alternative for deserving surprises and overdue honors — safe within the data that Swift’s The Lifetime of a Showgirl is already teed up for subsequent 12 months’s awards.

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This story appeared within the Oct. 1 subject of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.