K-pop, The Weeknd, Timothée Chalamet, Billie Eilish: All the 2026 Grammy
nom snubs and surprises
[November 08, 2025]
By MARIA SHERMAN
NEW YORK (AP) — The 2026 Grammy Award nominees are here, and who else
but Kendrick Lamar leads this year's crop with nine nods on the strength
of 2024's “GNX?”
It's an exciting lineup, but like every year, there were a few artists
who made the coveted list Friday and a few who didn't. Snubs and
surprises are in no short supply in 2026.
The 2026 Grammy Awards will air Feb. 1 live on CBS and Paramount+ from
the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
Hip-hop heavyweights get recognized in the top prize
It's Lamar's world, but he's sharing it. This year, for the first time,
there are three releases nominated in both the rap album and album of
the year categories. Those are “GNX,” Clipse, Pusha T & Malice’s “Let
God Sort Em Out” and Tyler, the Creator’s “Chromakopia.”
In the past, the Grammys have been criticized over a lack of diversity —
artists of color and women left out of top prizes; rap and contemporary
R&B stars ignored. Is this symbolic of a new shift?
The best new artist category leaves out rap and country
Despite the hip-hop attention in the album of the year category, rap's
missing in the list of best new artist nominees this year. The same is
true of country. Don't get it twisted — Katseye, Olivia Dean, The
Marias, Addison Rae, sombr, Leon Thomas, Alex Warren and Lola Young make
a great list — but what about Ella Langley? Megan Moroney?
Billie Eilish is back
A favorite of the Recording Academy, Billie Eilish is up for two
trophies this year: song and record of the year, both for her track
“Wildflower.” That make come as a surprise to some award show devotees:
Only recordings commercially released in the U.S. between Aug. 31, 2024
through Aug. 30, 2025 were eligible for nominations. “Wildflower” was
released in May 2024, on her last album, the critically acclaimed “Hit
Me Hard and Soft.” So, why is Eilish allowed to compete again in 2026?
There's another rule that states “tracks from an album released during
last year’s eligibility period are eligible in the current eligibility
period, provided the same tracks were not entered the previous year and
the album did not win a Grammy.”
There are a few exceptions. The rule excludes several categories,
including all the classical ones. But because “Wildflower” was not
previously entered — and it was entered as an album track — it is
eligible. Will that ruin others' opportunity to take home one of the top
prizes? Only time will tell.
New country categories confuse
There were a few changes to the Grammys this year, one of which was the
creation of a best traditional country album category, while the
existing best country album category has been renamed best contemporary
country album. (Beyoncé won best country album at the 2025 Grammy Awards
for “Cowboy Carter.”) It was unclear how the two categories would differ
from one another — and it is still unclear.
The traditional country category includes Charley Crockett's “Dollar A
Day,” Lukas Nelson's “American Romance,” Willie Nelson's “Oh What A
Beautiful World,” Margo Price's “Hard Headed Woman” and Zach Top's
“Ain't In It For My Health.”
And in the contemporary country category is Kelsea Ballerini's
“Patterns,” Tyler Childers' “Snipe Hunter,” Eric Church's “Evangeline
vs. The Machine,” Jelly Roll's “Beautifully Broken” and Miranda
Lambert's “Postcards from Texas.”
Is it that the latter leans more “crossover” country? You decide.
And let the record show Morgan Wallen didn’t submit his hit album, “I’m
the Problem” for consideration.
What's up with The Weeknd?
At the 2025 Grammy Awards, The Weeknd performed for the first time since
2017. As many may recall, back in 2020, he slammed the Grammys, calling
them “corrupt” after he landed zero nominations despite a megahit album.
“You owe me, my fans and the industry transparency,” he wrote on social
media.
At the 2025 event, Grammys CEO Harvey Mason jr. introduced The Weeknd by
stating that he understood the criticism and listed all the things the
academy has done to fix it.
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This combination of photos show Billie Eilish, from left, Timothee
Chalamet, and The Weekend. (AP Photo)
 “We have completely remade our
membership, adding more than 3,000 women voting members. The Grammy
electorate is now younger, nearly 40% people of color, and 66% of
our members are new since we started our transformation,” he said.
“Over the past few years, we have listened, we’ve acted and we’ve
changed.”
However, in 2026, The Weeknd's “Hurry Up Tomorrow” album was
eligible and submitted for Grammy consideration in over a dozen
categories, including album, song and record of the year. He does
not appear on the 2026 nominations list.
Make way for K-pop
Last year, K-pop was absent from the 2026 Grammys major categories.
It seemed odd, to fans of the genre, especially considering the
prolific output from BTS members who released solo material: RM’s
“Right Place, Wrong Person,” J-Hope’s “Hope on the Street, Vol. 1,”
and Jimin’s “Muse” among them. (As a boy band, BTS has received five
nominations across its career.) This year, that changes somewhat.
Rosé, perhaps best known as one-fourth of the juggernaut girl group
BLACKPINK, is the first K-pop artist to ever receive a nomination in
the record of the year field for “APT.,” her megahit with Bruno
Mars.
Song of the year — which is awarded to a track’s songwriters, which
sometimes includes the performer but not always — also features
“Golden” from the “KPop Demon Hunters” soundtrack.
Timothée Chalamet gets first Grammy nomination
You read that correctly. The actor is up for best compilation
soundtrack for visual media for “A Complete Unknown,” for his
portrayal of the great Bob Dylan. But competition is stiff: He'll
have to beat out “Wicked,” “KPop Demon Hunters,” “Sinners” and “F1
the Album.”
He's not the only shocking first-time nominee: Supreme Court Justice
Ketanji Brown Jackson and the Dalai Lama are up for audio book,
narration and storytelling recording. Steven Spielberg is also
nominated in the music film category for “Music By John Williams.”
Is the Grammys' future Spanish? Or is it just the Bad Bunny
effect?
Bad Bunny is a top nominee this year, making history with his
critically acclaimed album “Debí Tirar Más Fotos.” It is only the
second all-Spanish language album to be nominated in the album of
the year category. The first? Well, that was also Bad Bunny: in
2023, for “Un Verano Sin Ti.” Harry Styles’ “Harry’s House” won that
year.
It brings up a few questions. Are the Grammys recognizing more
Spanish-language music, or is Bad Bunny an exception? Notably absent
from the 2026 nominees list is Fuerza Regida's “111XPANTIA,” which
this year became the highest charting música Mexicana album. And at
one point, it was No. 2 on the Billboard 200 right underneath Bad
Bunny, marking the first time two Spanish-language albums held both
top positions. Instead, Fuerza Regida's collaborative EP with Grupo
Frontera, “Mala Mía” is nominated.
On Monday, it was announced that all Latin Grammy voting members
were invited to join the Recording Academy as part of its 2025 new
member class. It'll take time to see the results, but perhaps an
evolving, diversifying electorate could result in more openness to
Latino performers in the future.
Jack Antonoff returns
Last year Antonoff did not receive a nomination in the producer of
the year, non-classical category, and that unfortunate trend
continues this year. It was unusual because previously, he took it
home three years in a row. (Dan Nigro, known for his work with
Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo, took home the trophy in 2025.)
But it's not all doom and gloom: This year he's tied for the second
most Grammy nominees, largely recognized for his work with Lamar and
Sabrina Carpenter, with seven.
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