On Friday Nov. 7, the nominations for the 2026 Grammy Awards were announced. Nomination categories include Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. The Grammys will be held on Feb. 1 at the Crypto Arena in Los Angeles.
Source: Instagram, @variety
According to the Grammy’s official website, social media saw a wave of celebration from fans and nominees right away as they shared their reactions online. The nominees were announced on a livestream with artists including Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Sam Smith, KAROL G and more.
The 2026 award show has a wide range of genres and artists including pop, country, rap, R&B, Latin and other categories. It is meaningful for any artist to be awarded a Grammy, but when it is awarded to a new artist, it helps establish them and gives them credibility in the field as it opens the doors to new opportunities and recognition.
“The Grammys overall hold relevance in the field because they are voted on by their peers, it’s not critics or record sales – it’s by other artists,” said Professor Lori Bindig Yousman.
The absence of Taylor Swift’s new album “The Life of a Showgirl” in the list of nominations is seeming to stir up some drama online.
“I was surprised to see that Taylor hadn’t been nominated, but later realized that the album came out after the deadlines,” said junior Emily Nolan. “I was, however, excited to see that Billie Elish’s song “WILDFLOWER” was nominated for Song of the Year.”
The deadline for submitting music for the 2026 Grammy nominations closed on Aug. 29, meaning that all music released afterwards could not be considered for an award.
“I think that the general public isn’t always aware of what the timeline is, and so based on that timeline, I am happy with the artists who were nominated,” said Yousman.
The song “Defying Gravity” from the movie “Wicked” has been nominated for Best Duo/Group Performance. Even though this song is from a movie, it has gained lots of popularity through radio plays. Music from films and musicals as nominees for the Grammys is a notable achievement as it shows the recognition of musical influence.
The song “Golden” by HUNTR/X has been nominated for Song of the Year. This song is made by the fictional K-Pop group HUNTR/X in the Netflix film “K-Pop Demon Hunters.” Even though the group is fictional, the song was written by EJAE and Mark Sonnenblick and was released by Republic Records.
“What I think is really interesting from the media perspective is HUNTR/X being nominated,” said Yousman. “Although the song was originally written for the Netflix film, KPop Demon Hunters, it has become such a great hit outside of the film.”
Winners will be determined by the Recording Academy’s Voting Members.
Fans can find out more information and see the entire list of nominations on www.grammy.com.
