Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar lead 2026 Grammy nominations

While Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar are among the candidates for the 2026 Grammy Awards, K-Pop entered the song of the year category for the first time.

For the second year in a row, Compton rapper Lamar had the most nominations (nine in total), including album of the year for his ode to the flashy, fiery GNX.

Gaga is also up for the main award with Mayhem, an album that looks into her own past and symbolizes a return to her electro-pop roots. He has seven nominations in total.

Meanwhile, two K-Pop songs have been shortlisted for song of the year: Rosé and Bruno Mars’ bubbly pop hit APT and Hunter/x’s Golden, the breakout hit from Netflix’s animated K-Pop Demon Hunters.

Gaga and Lamar previously had five nominations for album of the year, but neither could lift the coveted golden gramophone in that category.

If Lamar wins next February, GNX would become the first rap album to win the night’s main award since Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2004.

With his wildly creative Chromakopia, fellow maverick rapper Tyler faces competition from the Creator; and Let God Sort Em Out’s first album since 2009 reunited hip-hop duo Clipse.

It’s the first time in Grammy history that three rap albums have made the album of the year shortlist.

Also nominated was Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny, who will headline next year’s Super Bowl halftime show.

Combining live instrumentation with the hip-shaking pulse of reggaeton, the musically ambitious Debí Tirar has been shortlisted for Más Fotos.

This is only the second time an album entirely in Spanish has been shortlisted for the award. The first of these was Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti, released in 2022.

British stars Olivia Dean and Lola Young received their first Grammy nominations in the best new artist category, where they will compete with pop star Addison Rae and global girl group Katseye.

Meanwhile, Rosé, one-quarter of the wildly successful girl group Blackpink, is the first K-Pop idol to be shortlisted for any of the Grammys’ “Big Four” awards.

Inspired by Toni Basil’s 1980s classic Mickey, APT was also nominated for best pop duet; co-writer Amy Allen is a candidate for songwriter of the year.

Elsewhere, a collection of the Dalai Lama’s meditations faces the autobiography of Milli Vanilli’s Fab Morvan in the best audiobook shortlist.

The nominations were announced live by a host of stars, including 2025 winners Chappell Roan, Doechii and Sabrina Carpenter, as well as British musicians such as Sam Smith and Marcus Mumford.

• Kendrick Lamar – nine
• Lady Gaga – seven
• Bad Rabbit, Sabrina Carpenter, Leon Thomas – six

song of the year

• Lady Gaga-Abracadabra
• Doechii – Anxiety
• Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT
• Bad Rabbit – DtMF
• Hunter/x – Gold
• Kendrick Lamar feat SZA – Luther
• Sabrina Carpenter – Human Child
• Billie Eilish – Wildflower

record of the year

• Bad Rabbit – DtMF
• Sabrina Carpenter – Human Child
• Doechii – Anxiety
• Billie Eilish – Wildflower
• Lady Gaga-Abracadabra
• Kendrick Lamar feat SZA – Luther
• Chappell Roan – Subway
• Rosé & Bruno Mars – APT

album of the year

• Bad Rabbit – Debí Tirar More Photos
• Justin Bieber – Swag
• Sabrina Carpenter – Man’s Best Friend
• Clipse – Let God Sort Them Out
• Lady Gaga – Mayhem
• Kendrick Lamar – GNX
• Leon Thomas – Mutt
• Tyler, Creator – Chromakopia

best new artist

• Olivia Dean
• Katseye
• Maria’s
• Addison Rae
• gloomy
• Leon Thomas
• Alex Warren
• Lola Young

Taylor Swift cannot attend the Grammys for the first time since 2006.

The star’s last album, The Life of a Showgirl, was released in October and missed the cutoff for nominations.

To be eligible for the competition, a song or album must have been released between August 31, 2024 and August 30, 2025.

Therefore, Life of a Showgirl will be eligible for the 2027 ceremony and will almost certainly secure Swift’s eighth nomination for album of the year.

Approximately 23,000 applications were submitted for the 2026 Grammy awards.

The biggest field was the song of the year with 1,015 participants.

The least filled category was best compilation soundtrack for visual media, with only 48 entries.

Once submissions are reviewed and verified, voting members take over. Nearly 15,000 musicians, critics and music industry professionals voted to determine the final nominees.

Following the publication of the shortlist, a final round of voting will take place between 12 December and 5 January.

Winners will be announced at a star-studded ceremony in Los Angeles on February 1, 2026.