The Recording Academy has officially announced the nominees for the 2026 Grammy Awards, with Kendrick Lamar leading the field with an impressive nine nominations. The rapper is hoping to replicate his success from last year in multiple categories. Following closely behind Lamar are Lady Gaga, Jack Antonoff, and Mayhem producer Cirkut, each with seven nominations. Bad Bunny and Sabrina Carpenter have secured six nominations, while SZA, Turnstile, and Tyler, the Creator each received five nods. Here’s the full list of nominees for the 2026 Grammy Awards.
Kendrick Lamar had a dominant year at the 2025 Grammys, sweeping the categories in which his track “Not Like Us” was nominated. For 2026, he will aim for back-to-back wins in the Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Rap Performance categories. His song “Luther” is up for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year, while his collaboration with Clipse, “Chains & Whips”, is nominated for Best Rap Performance. Lamar is also hoping to win Album of the Year for the first time, having previously been nominated for this category a record seven times.
Lamar is joined in the Album of the Year race by Bad Bunny, Clipse, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, rising R&B star Leon Thomas, Sabrina Carpenter, and Tyler, the Creator. None of these nominees has ever won Album of the Year, although several, including Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and Tyler, the Creator, have been nominated before. Antonoff’s seven nominations stem entirely from his work with Carpenter and Lamar.
In the Record of the Year and Song of the Year categories, Billie Eilish is hoping to secure her first Grammy since 2024. Her song “Wildflower” — from the Hit Me Hard and Soft album — was released as a single in 2025, making it eligible for the 2026 awards. Similarly, Doechii’s “Anxiety”, which has earned five nominations, was initially released in 2019 but formally released as a single in March 2025, qualifying for this year’s awards.
Turnstile, known for their genre-defying sound, is another act with multiple nominations. The band’s album Never Enough has been recognised in rock, metal, and alternative categories. A surprise nominee in the Best Alternative Music Album category is Tyler, the Creator, whose album Don’t Tap the Glass earned a nod, adding to his three nominations in the rap categories for Chromakopia. Meanwhile, Paramore’s Hayley Williams received four nominations across rock and alternative music categories.
This year also brings a number of first-time nominees. Among the most notable are Dijon, up for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical and Album of the Year (for his contributions to Justin Bieber’s Swag), country artist Zach Top, pop star Addison Rae, British singer-songwriter PinkPantheress, and rising artist Lola Young, known for her song “Messy”.
Several artists are also hoping to secure their first-ever Grammy win. The Cure’s Songs of a Lost World is nominated for Best Alternative Music Album, with the track “Alone” competing for Best Alternative Music Performance. It marks the first Grammy nomination for Robert Smith’s band since 2001.
Pusha T and Malice are also seeking their first Grammy wins. Prior to this year, Pusha T had been nominated six times, while his brother Malice had one previous nomination. Clipse, the duo consisting of Pusha T and Malice, received only one prior formal nomination.
The 2026 Grammys also feature an unexpected posthumous nomination. Nelson Riddle, the legendary arranger who passed away in 1985, has been nominated for Best Arrangement, Instruments and Vocals for “How Did She Look?”, a track recorded by Seth MacFarlane for his album Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements. This marks Riddle’s first nomination since he won a Grammy in 1986.
The 2026 Grammy Awards will also introduce a new category, Best Album Cover, and split the Best Country Album category into two: Best Contemporary Country Album and Best Traditional Country Album. Among the nominees for Best Album Cover are Bad Bunny, Wet Leg, and Cody Critcheloe of Ssion, who is nominated for his work on Perfume Genius’s Glory.
The 2026 Grammy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, 1 February 2026, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The event will be broadcast live on CBS and streamed on Paramount+.