Copyright Pitchfork
It is all to play for at the 2026 Grammy Awards. In an eligibility window of big returns and insurgent crossover acts—but no contenders from autopilot picks like Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish—the Recording Academy has a wide canvas to fill with a fresh crop of nominees. Should voters wish to paint it in beige and ecru, that is their business. But consider a world where academy dials are tweaked to favor a shade more invention and vibrancy, upgrading an Alex Warren for a PinkPantheress, a H.E.R. for a Ravyn Lenae. Below is a breakdown of how that world might look, taking the academy sensibility at face value but mixing in some what-ifs and maybes to keep things interesting. Stay tuned for the final nominations on Friday, November 7. Album of the Year Bad Bunny - Debí Tirar Más Fotos Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal FKA twigs - Eusexua Kendrick Lamar - GNX Lady Gaga - Mayhem Tyler, the Creator - Chromakopia Various Artists - KPop Demon Hunters (Soundtrack From the Netflix Film) The Weeknd - Hurry Up Tomorrow In a Grammy eligibility window without albums from Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Beyoncé, and Adele, it’s anybody’s game for Album of the Year. Still, Kendrick Lamar feels a heavy favorite after “Not Like Us” bullied its way to five awards at the 2025 show, and he is still awaiting his proper coronation after unsuccessful nominations for Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, To Pimp a Butterfly, Damn., Black Panther: The Album, and Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. (For good measure, he also managed to get nominated and fall short for Beyoncé’s Lemonade.) GNX has a credible shot at the award on its own merits, but Jack Antonoff’s presence doesn’t hurt, as the producer has won Album of the Year thrice for his work with Taylor Swift. The other frontrunner is Lady Gaga, who returned to form with Mayhem, arguably her most important album since Born This Way. Lady Gaga is also a four-time Album of the Year nominee without any hardware to show for it. Elsewhere, Bad Bunny is an industry force (and strong favorite at the Latin Grammy Awards), but he is probably another album or two away from serious Album of the Year consideration, as this category often operates on a delay. (See: Beyoncé’s victory for Cowboy Carter.) FKA twigs also plowed into the mainstream, but serves more to add some “cool” to the category than actually win. The Weeknd got back into the Recording Academy’s good graces, but it may be too little too late as Hurry Up Tomorrow is maybe the weakest entry in his latest trilogy. And Tyler, the Creator could well compete against himself, as he has two albums eligible; Chromakopia, however, is the likelier bet, as more an “event album,” compared to the surprise genre exercise that is Don’t Tap the Glass. Some potential surprises include Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal, the Geese frontman’s quietly released December album that’s gained momentum due to his band’s roaring success. (Geese will have to wait until the 2027 Grammy Awards to capitalize on the success of Getting Killed.) And I’ll posit that the soundtrack to the Netflix film KPop Demon Hunters will have a strong showing. It is one of the biggest soundtracks of all time, and maybe producers can save a little money on a virtual performance. –Matthew Strauss Song of the Year Addison Rae - Headphones On Bad Bunny - Baile Inolvidable Bon Iver - S P E Y S I D E Justin Bieber - Daisies Kendrick Lamar & SZA - Luther Lady Gaga - Abracadabra MJ Lenderman - Wristwatch Sabrina Carpenter - Manchild The Recording Academy does not need to confine its definition of Song of the Year to “Song I Could Have Heard in a Target This Year.” Sure, Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild” topped the charts with kitsch and welcome subtlety; the syncopation on “Abracadabra”’s “hold-me-in-your-heart-to-night” hook is exactly the kind of steel-plated songcraft that won Lady Gaga her first Grammys all the way back in 2010; and, on “Luther,” SZA drew out a softer side of Kendrick Lamar, whose vicious Drake diss, “Not Like Us,” won this category in the winter and swept every category it was nominated in last year. But there can always be more. Take “S P E Y S I D E”—perhaps the purest distillation of songwriting as an art from this eligibility period. Accompanied by little more than an acoustic guitar, Justin Vernon revisited the spare arrangements of his debut, For Emma, Forever Ago, with another two decades years of wisdom to his name. MJ Lenderman also had a banner 2024 with the release of Manning Fireworks, and there’s hardly a better encapsulation of his sad-sack, lightly absurdist charms in couplet form than “I got a beach home up in Buffalo/And a wristwatch that’s a compass and a cellphone.” Then again, for a tribute to the escapist power of music itself, I simply say: Put your headphones on. Among the likely candidates, though, two songs stand out as marriages of craft and commerce. While Justin Bieber has never been a Grammys favorite, “Daisies,” from the surprise-released Swag, marks his most decisive step yet away from a prolonged musical adolescence and toward grown-man R&B. Bieber’s co-writer and a rising star himself, Mk.gee deserves a nod, too—his slippery, hyper-compressed take on 1980s new wave sounds more and more like the future of pop. Meanwhile, Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos boasts at least five tracks that could reasonably lay claim to Song of the Year, but “Baile Inolvidable” might be the best of the bunch: catchy, hugely popular, forward-thinking, reverent of tradition, political, danceable, irresistible. –Walden Green Best New Artist Addison Rae Alex Warren Katseye Lola Young MJ Lenderman PinkPantheress Ravyn Lenae Sleep Token Last year’s Best New Artist race was a genuine toss-up, with most of its nominees—Doechii, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan—having true breakout years in the traditional interpretation of that term. Conversely, this year’s nomination pool appears far less locked in, even before resorting to the usual “Are so-and-so really all that ‘new’?” pulls. Dare we throw the word “exciting” around when discussing the Grammy Awards in 2025, but, frankly, ample room for a handful of pleasant Best New Artist surprises is actually exciting. Since last October, mainstream awareness has welcomed two pop stars into their orbit: the chameleonic whisper-singer Addison Rae and British singer-producer PinkPantheress, both of whom have good odds considering previous award winners skew more pop. That same logic allows the TikTok hit-to-album candidates, Katseye and Lola Young, to have a good chance on the backs of their respective singles “Gnarly” and “Messy.” A few Best New Artist nominees feel particularly thrilling this year. The coveted R&B nod will ideally go to Ravyn Lenae, whose tender soprano and futuristic approach to the genre on 2024’s Bird’s Eye reimagines how much creativity there’s still left to explore. Catapulted from Wednesday’s success comes MJ Lenderman, who experienced double the breakout moment thanks to his 2024 solo album for Anti-, Manning Fireworks, lands it in the sphere of possibility for consideration. And who better to help one of this year’s underdogs stand out from the crowd than two of the most forgettable acts going? Alex Warren, whose music manages to sound more generic than the name he had no say in choosing, and Sleep Token, the anonymous British metal band who compensate for their drab incorporation of pseudo-prog and pop-rap by wearing masks and capes. Would the Recording Academy be so overeager to nominate a new metal band with Billboard success that they don’t stop to question if they’re actually enjoyable to listen to? Please. –Nina Corcoran Best Alternative Music Album Cameron Winter - Heavy Metal Nilüfer Yanya - My Method Actor Ichiko Aoba - Luminescent Creatures MJ Lenderman - Manning Fireworks Water From Your Eyes - It’s a Beautiful Place Here at Pitchfork, we are always asking ourselves the same question, worded in this completely normal way: “What is the Best Alternative Music Album of the year?” The academy, for its part, presents “alternative” as a sort of quarantine zone; by its own definition, this is the safe space for “innovative” records that are “more original, eclectic, or musically challenging.” In truth, Best Alternative Music Album is a haven for those who find even thinking about the Grammys a sort of musical challenge, as well as a reminder that the Recording Academy is, when it wants to be, just like us. It too sees the merits of abstraction, idiosyncrasy, and subtlety as well as kitsch bombast—and occasionally ties itself in knots wondering if the new Big Thief album is really up there with their best work. Since its inception in 1991, the category presumably designed to keep insubordinates off the rock and pop ballots has evolved into a thriving, gated community for genuine path-breakers like St. Vincent, PJ Harvey, and Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard. History has proven that singer-songwriters with a vaguely wry approach to lyric and song form will flourish, so deadpan wits like Cameron Winter, MJ Lenderman, and prior nominee Father John Misty are all in good stead for the 2026 Grammy Awards. The category has yet to recognize the wave of jazz-inflected rock renegades that has long surged out of London, but, if the likes of Geordie Greep and Black Country, New Road seem too leftfield, then Nilüfer Yanya’s more refined, equally adventurous My Method Actor is a fine ambassador. Water From Your Eyes’ It’s a Beautiful Place, meanwhile, has the earworms, alt-rock sheen, and brain-scrambling hyperpop electricity to tug even the stiffest suits into the Rabbit Hole by their starched collars. I would finally propose an outside shot: the unparalleled composer-songwriter Ichiko Aoba. Released on the Psychic Hotline label of two-time Grammy nominees Sylvan Esso, the Japanese musician’s ambient folk album Luminescent Creatures is just the sort of timeless, world-building, and, crucially, inviting record that could make devotees out of casually curious music lovers everywhere—provided, that is, they are up to the musical challenge. –Jazz Monroe Best Rock Album The Cure - Songs of a Lost World Haim - I Quit Julie - My Anti-Aircraft Friend Turnstile - Never Enough Wet Leg - Moisturizer In a dream world, the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album wouldn’t be so dated. With the usual batch of classic rock shoo-ins on a break this past year, and rock’s long-faded torchbearers, like Jack White and the Black Keys, coming off cycles, it’s an opportune time for the Grammys to champion bands who recently crossed into the big time but would likely be shelved in the Best Alternative Music Album category. If the Recording Academy removes its not-so-hidden gendered blinders, then Wet Leg and Haim should be easy locks. Though more of a British indie-rock band churning out hooks than old-school guitar gods, Wet Leg continue to draw massive crowds across age demographics with Moisturizer and proved their songwriting chops flex a wide range of muscles. (They also may well graduate from Best Alternative to Best Rock, similar to St. Vincent.) Seasoned album cycle promoters Haim went professional with I Quit, replicating iconic paparazzi photos for each single’s artwork that courts nostalgia and cheeky fun that meet their long-running skills as natural rock stars. The industry’s formerly misunderstood, now heralded bands should get nods as well: The Cure, whose long-awaited goth-rock comeback album Songs of a Lost World was 16 years in the making, or Turnstile, who climbed hardcore’s barricade and flung themselves into the rock arena, turning punk agnostics into full-fledged believers with Never Enough. The Grammys have the chance to catch a band before that same pipeline pivot, too, in the shape of Julie, the Los Angeles trio making shoegaze-powered grunge on My Anti-Aircraft Friend with the unflappable coolness of Sonic Youth. Bundled together, these five records make the case that a new era of rock is bolder, louder, and more varied than years prior. –Nina Corcoran Best Rap Album Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out Glorilla - Glorious Kendrick Lamar - GNX Playboi Carti - Music Tyler, the Creator - Chromakopia It’s a treat to go through the Best Rap Albums battles of decades past, back when they could feel like a clash of the classics. Of late, though, the category has looked more like a grab bag of RapCaviar staples and old-head fodder, a never-ending assembly line of J. Coles, Drakes, and the nth Nas/Hit-Boy collab. Last year showed some promise, as Grammys newcomer Doechii took home the award for Alligator Bites Never Heal. It also suggested a formula to a winning season: have an impressive rollout, a strong narrative around your record, and an MVP year where you’re the chatter of rap X and office coffee breaks. This is why Clipse look like a surefire lock for a nomination, for their comeback record Let God Sort Em Out. The album started enough conversations about Travis Scott, Ye, and others in Pusha T’s contacts, and ensured that Push and Malice were simply everywhere all summer. Riding the coattails of his massive coup last year, for “Not Like Us,” Kendrick Lamar also feels like a shoo-in for GNX. Tyler, the Creator has become a Grammys darling over the last half-decade, and I expect his last major full-length Chromakopia to get the nomination over his more recent dance detour Don’t Tap the Glass. Rounding out my predictions are Glorilla, who continues to dominate rap radio and the club circuit and had some Recording Academy buy-in last year with “Yeah Glo!,” and Playboi Carti, whose popularity and influence make him overdue for his first Best Rap Album nomination. –Mano Sundaresan Best Progressive R&B Album Dijon - Baby Eddie Chacon - Lay Low Kelela - In the Blue Light Mereba - The Breeze Grew a Fire SZA - SOS Deluxe: Lana Since its 2020 rebrand, it’s been hard to pin down exactly what is meant to compete for Best Progressive R&B Album. “Progressive” really is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Does it mean jazz? Electronica? Artists who are pushing the genre forward or just anyone who uses a drum machine? Luckily, we have Dijon, whose new album, Baby, kind of does it all, blazing a trail forward for the genre while looking back to forbears like Prince and The-Dream. An R&B pacesetter in her own right, Kelela could also earn some overdue recognition with In the Blue Light, her stripped-down live album. Eddie Chacon and Mereba both have deep industry roots—Chacon was half of the chart-topping 1990s soul duo Charles & Eddie, and Mereba claims Stevie Wonder as a mentor. Still, it’s SZA who towers above the competition. Her expansive masterstroke SOS took home this trophy in 2024, and the songs on Lana—billed as a deluxe edition but in practice its own album—are every bit their predecessors’ equals, as brilliant and as cutting as diamonds. –Walden Green Best Dance/Electronic Music Album Caribou - Honey FKA twigs - Eusexua Kaytranada - Ain’t No Damn Way! Jamie xx - In Waves Skrillex - F*ck U Skrillex You Think Ur Andy Warhol but Ur Not!! <3 For a moment, at the turn of the decade, the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album threatened to slip into total irrelevance. In back-to-back years, voters awarded late-career albums by Justice and the Chemical Brothers, two acts whose best work dated back at least a decade at the time. Since then, the Recording Academy has spruced up its nominations, spotlighting influential, globally minded producers—Kaytranada, Black Coffee—as well as forward-thinking pop albums—Renaissance, Brat—that may not get shine in the Big Four. This year’s closest analogue is FKA twigs’ Eusexua, a dream of a club record that houses some of twigs’ most accessible songwriting. Voters for the 2026 Grammys can also have their cake and eat it too, thanks to a crop of previously acclaimed artists who all put out really good records during the eligibility window. Kaytranada slipped in right under the cutoff with Ain’t No Damn Way!, which could win hearts for its single-minded commitment to the dancefloor, while nine-time Grammy winner Skrillex refined his signature post-dubstep sound on F*ck U Skrillex You Think Ur Andy Warhol but Ur Not!! <3. The most interesting narratives belong to Jamie xx and Caribou’s Dan Snaith: the former has, in the 10 years since In Colour, graduated from all-black-clad crate-digger to big-tent festival DJ, while the latter’s embrace of AI vocalists could prove an interesting litmus test for voters who consider themselves more future-minded. –Walden Green
