LOS ANGELES, United States — The nominations for the 2026 Grammy Awards have placed rapper Kendrick Lamar at the forefront of contenders for the second consecutive year, securing nine nominations. This tally significantly outpaces pop superstar Lady Gaga, who received seven nods in the race for the music industry’s most coveted honors.
The winners will be announced at a red-carpet ceremony in Los Angeles on February 1.
Album of the year showdown
The central battle for the prestigious Album of the Year trophy will feature Lamar’s GNX and Gaga’s MAYHEM. Despite multiple prior nominations, neither artist has secured a win in this category.
The Album of the Year field also includes a strong and diverse lineup:
- Bad Bunny for the Spanish-language album Debí Tirar Más Fotos.
- Justin Bieber for Swag.
- Sabrina Carpenter for Man’s Best Friend.
The category also features a notable presence of hip-hop, with three rap albums in contention: Lamar’s GNX, Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia, and Let God Sort Em Out from the duo Clipse.
The Life of a Showgirl by Taylor Swift, who holds an unmatched four wins for Album of the Year, was not eligible as it was released after the Grammy eligibility window closed for this year’s awards.
Major category contenders
Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican musician set to perform at the next Super Bowl halftime show, received a total of six nominations, including nods in the three major categories: Record, Song, and Album of the Year. This makes him the first Latin artist to be nominated in all three major fields in the same year.
Billboard awards editor Paul Grein suggested the Album of the Year race would be tight: “I think it’s between Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar.” Grein leaned toward Lamar, noting the rapper would make history as the first solo male rap artist to win the prize.
“I think he’ll do it,” Grein said, “but you can never discount Lady Gaga who is loved by everyone.”
K-Pop makes inroads in song of the year
The Song of the Year category, which honors songwriters, saw the breakthrough inclusion of two K-Pop tracks:
- “Golden,” from the soundtrack of KPop Demon Hunters, the most-watched movie in Netflix history, which received three total nominations.
- “APT.” by Rose and Bruno Mars.
Rei Ami, one of the vocalists behind the fictional Demon Hunters group HUNTR/X, expressed surprise at the success: “Never did I imagine this level of success. It’s really hard for all of us to process still.”
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The song “APT.” also secured nominations for Record of the Year (honoring producers and performers) and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Other nominees in the Record of the Year category include Gaga’s “Abracadabra,” Lamar and SZA’s “luther,” and Bad Bunny’s “DtMF.”
In the Best New Artist category, Olivia Dean and KATSEYE will compete against Leon Thomas, Alex Warren, and others. Thomas, an R&B and soul musician, also received an Album of the Year nomination for his work on Mutt.
Grammy winners are chosen by the approximately 15,000 voting members of the Recording Academy.
