What Do This Year’s Grammy Nominations Say About How the Recording Academy Is Doing?

The nominations for the upcoming 68th Annual Grammy Awards were announced on Friday (Nov. 7) — giving us three months before the Feb. 1 awards to debate who will win, who will get shut out, and who was unduly snubbed altogether.

The most frequently called name for the nominations unsurprisingly belonged to Kendrick Lamar, who was already a big winner at the 2025 awards for his “Not Like Us,” and has nine nominations for 2026, most for his massively successful GNX album and its singles “Luther” and “TV Off.” Artists right behind Lamar include Lady Gaga, with seven nominations, and Bad Bunny and Sabrina Carpenter with six nominations — with all four artists competing in each of the album, record and song of the year categories.

How’d the Recording Academy do with capturing the year that was in this crop of nominees? And in what areas does it still need work? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.

1. On a scale of 1-10, how well would you say the 2026 Grammy nominations did at capturing the best and brightest from the past year in music?

Katie Atkinson: 8. Honestly, it feels like there is far less to debate than in previous years. The conversations I’ve been having following the nominations have been more nitpicky than anything else — like, why “Golden” for song of the year but not record? And why “The Subway” for record but not song? (The reality is, both deserve recognition, wherever they’re placed.) There also aren’t really any eyebrow-raising inclusions in the big four like previous years. It’s pretty refreshing overall!

Eric Renner Brown: 8. Do I wish that MJ Lenderman, last year’s biggest indie-rock breakout, had scored a nomination (or several) with his September 2024 album Manning Fireworks? Of course. But generally – and realistically – speaking, the Grammys delivered a respectable slate of nominees for the 2026 awards. The major categories recognize a wide swath of acclaimed mainstream artists, and the genre categories are solid surveys of their respective types of music (even if I can’t help but laugh at Haim vying against four hard-rock groups for best rock album). Also refreshing: for a third straight year, the Grammys didn’t nominate a deluxe edition of an album for album of the year, which it did several times from 2020 to 2022.

Kyle Denis: Honestly, a solid 8. Virtually every star who had a true breakthrough over the past year appears on the final nominations list — but a complete shutout for Ravyn Lenae and “Love Me Not” is absolutely inexcusable. It’s also a shame that BigXThaPlug didn’t get any looks. 

Paul Grein: I give them an 8.5. The nominations hit just about all the right notes, expect for overlooking one key genre yet again. We’ll get to that.

Andrew Unterberger: At the risk of being boring, an 8 sounds about right. This was the first year in recent memory where none of the nominees in the big four categories set off a hearty round of guffaws across my various chats and social media feeds. Even the nominations I strongly disagree with I can’t say I was terribly surprised by. Really, the biggest complaint you could have about these nominees is that they were perhaps a bit too predictable.

2. Which artist or work’s omission from one or all of the big four categories did you find the most surprising?

Katie Atkinson: Surprising but not unwelcome: I definitely expected Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” to be up for song or record of the year. While Warren did score a best new artist nod, his 10-week Hot 100 No. 1 breakthrough smash left empty-handed in the big four and beyond. Aside from “Ordinary,” I also felt confident that Ravyn Lenae would be in the best new artist field. While her breakthrough single “Love Me Not” was ineligible because it was released in summer 2024, the timing of her big hit seemed like it would send her sailing into that category.

Eric Renner Brown: The Grammys whiffed by completely snubbing Lorde for an album that’s one of the year’s better pop records – and her best record in more than a decade (Lorde fans, sorry, Virgin is better than Melodrama!). But while I don’t think it should have been nominated, what I found most surprisingly was the general field omission of Elton John and Brandi Carlile’s collaborative Who Believes In Angels?, which had Grammy contender written all over it.

Kyle Denis: Outside of Ravyn Lenae and BigXThaPlug in best new artist and “Love Me Not” in record and song of the year, I was also surprised (but not disappointed) to see Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” left out of the genreal field. 

Paul Grein: Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” is the kind of stately power ballad that in years past would have been a surefire record and song of the year nominee. It topped the Hot 100 for 10 weeks. Warren even won best new artist at the VMAs, even though fellow nominee Sombr seemed a more MTV-ish choice. My runner-up surprise is that HUNTR/X’s “Golden” was nominated for song of the year but not record of the year. I would have figured it would be the other way around.

Andrew Unterberger: Just because of the context around The Weeknd’s Grammy history — with him essentially swearing off the Recording Academy after being totally shut out from the nominations in 2021, and then making his big conciliatory return to the stage at last year’s awards — it was pretty surprising to not see his Hurry Up Tomorrow or “Timeless” recognized in the big four, or anywhere else. Although considering the snub only received a fraction of the outcry that his After Hours-era bagel did four years earlier, perhaps that’s telling of the relative esteem that the public holds Tomorrow in.

3. Outside of the Big Four, which of the genre categories do you find the most interesting?

Katie Atkinson: I’ve got to go for best audio book, narration, and storytelling recording for the sheer variety of nominees. There’s five-time Grammy host Trevor Noah (Into the Uncut Grass), 1960s child star Kathy Garver (Elvis, Rocky & Me: The Carol Connors Story), Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson (Lovely One: A Memoir), the Dalai Lama (Meditations: The Reflections of His Holiness The Dalai Lama), and finally Fab Morvan’s return to the Grammys after his best new artist statue was revoked following Milli Vanilli’s lip-sync scandal (You Know It’s True: The Real Story of Milli Vanilli). It doesn’t get more all over the map than that.

Eric Renner Brown: The country, Americana, and folk categories. These genres were conspicuously overlooked in the general field, and reading through these genre category nominations shows how mistaken that was. From new-school talents like Tyler Childers, Billy Strings and Zach Top to chart-toppers like Jelly Roll and Eric Church to legends like Willie Nelson and Mavis Staples, this music had a strong year that deserved greater general field recognition. But seeing who prevails in these stacked genre categories will still be entertaining.

Kyle Denis: Interestingly, I think best dance pop recording is one of the most competitive categories at the 2026 ceremony. I’d be happy if any of those songs won, but I’m definitely rooting for Zara Larsson (“Midnight Sun”) and Pinkpantheress (“Illegal”). I also think best progressive R&B album is a highlight between the girl group (FLO) and Black queer (Durand Bernarr and Destin Conrad) representation. It was also dope to see that the best album cover category didn’t solely prioritize A-listers. 

Paul Grein: The nominees for best music film include everyone from new-wave greats Devo (Devo), reeling in their first Grammy nomination in 41 years, to genre-blending Brit singer-songwriter RAYE (Live at the Royal Albert Hall), who is a Grammy nominee for the second year in a row. Two of the nominated films – Music by John Williams and Pharrell Williams’ Piece by Piece, were on the longlist for Oscar nominations for documentary feature film last year. The fifth nominee is Relentless, an aptly titled documentary of songwriter Diane Warren, who has amassed 16 Oscar nominations but still has the hunger of a twenty-something newbie looking for her first nod.

Andrew Unterberger: The rock nominations this year are wild. Amyl and the Sniffers for best rock performance? Tyler, the Creator for best alternative music album — with his dance album, no less? Turnstile in the rock, alternative and metal categories? Lotta surprises — and some questions to be had for sure — but it’s much more entertaining than the usual march of legacy acts we see in the rock categories, anyway.

4. The Recording Academy has taken great efforts to update and diversify its membership recently. Do you think these Grammy nominations show that the Recording Academy is still missing proper representation in any particular genre/demographic/area? If so, where?

Katie Atkinson: The album of the year field seems to reflect those efforts, with three rap albums, a Spanish-language album and an R&B album taking up more than half the field. The real test will be who comes out on top in that category, considering each of those five nominees would be a first-time winner in the category.

Eric Renner Brown: Even a few years ago, this album of the year slate would’ve been unimaginable: a majority of nominees are people of color, and three rap albums got nods. The general field feels more representative of mainstream music than ever, even if the limited number of available nominations means that something will always feel excluded.

That said, in the general field, the lack of country music is disappointing – as is the lack of dance/electronic, beyond Lady Gaga’s heavily dance-influenced album Mayhem and its lead single “Abracadabra.” For well over a decade dance music has helped to define the musical mainstream, and artists nominated in the dance/electronic categories this year – including Disclosure, Fred Again.., Skrillex and FKA twigs – are bona fide stars who deserve more visible recognition.

Kyle Denis: The Academy still has work to do with bolstering their Caribbean representation. In a year that spun out genuine crossover Caribbean hits like Moliy, Silent Addy & Disco Neil’s “Shake It to the Max” and Full Blown & Yung Bredda’s “The Greatest Bend Over,” a complete shut out for Caribbean music (outside of best reggae album) is indefensible. 

Paul Grein: Country is under-represented year after year. The Academy needs to make building up its country membership a priority. To their credit, it is transparent in releasing statistics on its voting membership. Unfortunately, that just confirms the problem: Just 7% of the total voting membership aligns with country, a percentage topped by 11 other genres, including such more specialized forms as jazz (16% of Grammy voters align with that genre) and classical (10% alignment). (Voters can check off more than one genre.)

On the day the nominations were announced, Melinda Newman wrote a must-read essay for Billboard.com, “Country Continues to Be the Grammys’ Poor Relation.” I hope the academy reads it and takes it to heart. They can and need to do better here.

Andrew Unterberger: It’s country. It just goes to show you that for as many incredible strides as the genre has made as a crossover genre on streaming — and even occasionally on radio — it still is often ignored altogether in a lot of pop spaces. Sure, maybe country’s shutout in best new artist was due in part to overcrowding between Ella Langley, Zach Top and Megan Moroney, with no one of those country candidates obviously outshining the other two. But that didn’t seem to affect Lola Young, Sombr or The Marias, three alt-rock-leaning acts who have had remarkably less trouble finding pop-world embrace, each of whom received BNA nominations. The contrast is stark.

5. Without getting into too many category specifics, which artist do you think is likely going to end up being the big winner on Grammy night in February?

Katie Atkinson: The obvious answer is Kendrick Lamar, who enters with nine nods and won five earlier this year. But another strong contender could be Leon Thomas. Even though I don’t see him walking away with album of the year come Feb. 1, I think there’s a clear path for him to win in his other five categories – which could set him up to be the next contender for one of those famous Grammy juggling photos, a la Norah Jones, Lauryn Hill or Adele.

Eric Renner Brown: Coming off a seismic, lauded 2025 – and with a Super Bowl halftime show booked for February – this feels like Bad Bunny’s year to make a run, especially in the album of the year category, where Debí Tirar Más Fotos is arguably the strongest nominee. At the same time, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kendrick Lamar’s arms loaded up with trophies: His “Not Like Us” record and song of the year wins earlier this year proved he can triumph in general field categories, his cultural and commercial stock is as high as it’s ever been thanks to his own Super Bowl appearance and the 13-week Hot 100 No. 1 “Luther,” and the Pulitzer-winner has never won album of the year – nor has any hip-hop artist in over two decades.

Kyle Denis: This is a fight to the bitter end between Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny — and, right now, I think Benito has the edge. 

Paul Grein: I predict that Kendrick Lamar is headed for a seven-Grammy sweep, which would be just one shy of the record of eight Grammys in one night shared by Michael Jackson and Santana. That would hoist Lamar’s career Grammy total to 29 awards, more than any other rapper in history. (That title is currently held by Jay-Z with 25 wins.) Leon Thomas is probably headed for a five-Grammy night. He seems like the front-runner to win best new artist and to clean up in the R&B categories.

Andrew Unterberger: I could find arguments to make for Lady Gaga or Bad Bunny — and who knows, maybe they’ll convince me over the course of the next three months. But for right now, my gut still says Kendrick Lamar is the guy everyone likes, and who everyone wants to see win. And I think he’ll do a whole lot of that on February 1.