Kendrick Lamar leads the 2026 Grammy nominations with nine nods, including album, record and song of the year. It’s the third time Lamar has been the leading nominee. He also led the field at the 2016 ceremony with 11 nods and at the 2019 ceremony with eight.
Lamar is followed on this year’s leaderboard by Jack Antonoff, Cirkut and Lady Gaga, with seven nods each; Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter, Serban Ghenea and Leon Thomas, with six each; and Clipse, Doechii, Sounwave, SZA, Turnstile, Tyler, the Creator and Andrew Watt, with five each.
This is the third time Lamar has been nominated for album, record and song of the year in the same year. Bad Bunny, Carpenter and Gaga were also nominated in all three of those categories this year. It’s the second year in a row that Carpenter has managed that sweep, the first time Gaga has done it since 2010, and the first time Bunny has ever done it.
Lamar is the first solo artist from any genre to be nominated for album of the year with five consecutive studio albums. Donald Fagen was nominated with five consecutive studio albums, but that combines solo and Steely Dan projects.
Lamar also becomes the first rapper to receive five album of the year nods as a lead artist. He had been tied with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, with four album of the year nods. Lamar’s nods are for good kid, m.A.A.d. city (2014), To Pimp a Butterfly (2016), DAMN. (2018) and Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers (2023). Lamar was also nominated for the Black Panther soundtrack (2019), but not as a lead artist.
Lamar and SZA become the first occasional duet partners to receive two record of the year nods. They were nominated seven years ago for “All the Stars” and are nominated again for “luther.”
Bad Bunny is the first Latin artist to receive Grammy nods for album, record and song of the year in the same year. He is nominated in the album category for the second time with Debí Tirar Más Fotos, after first being nominated three years ago with Un Verano Sin Ti. These are the only all-Spanish-language albums to be nominated in the category. He is also nominated for record and song of the year with “DtMF.” The latter is the second all-Spanish-language song to be nominated for both record and song of the year, following Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” (featuring Justin Bieber).
Bunny is also on track to become the first artist to be an album of the year contender in the same year that he was a Super Bowl halftime headliner since Justin Timberlake achieved both feats in 2004. JT was up for album of the year with his solo debut, Justified, and co-headlined the Super Bowl show with Janet Jackson, P. Diddy, Nelly, Kid Rock and Jessica Simpson. Bunny will be the first sole headliner (not part of a multi-artist show) who was nominated for album of the year in the same year that they headlined the Super Bowl show since U2 in 2002.
This marks the first time that three albums have been nominated for both album of the year and best rap album. Lamar’s album is joined in the finals in both categories by Tyler, the Creator’s CHROMAKOPIA and Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out.
This was the year K-pop finally made its presence felt in the marquee categories. “APT.,” ROSÉ’s hit collab with Bruno Mars, is the first song by a Korean pop artist to receive a record of the year nod. “Golden,” from KPop Demon Hunters, is the first song co-written by a Korean songwriter, EJAE, to receive a song of the year nod. KATSEYE, the “global girl group” nominated for best new artist, includes one member from South Korea, YOONCHAE.
“APT.” is Mars’ seventh hit to receive a record of the year nomination. Billie Eilish received her sixth nod in the category (in just seven years) for “Wildflower”; Lamar his fifth for “luther.” (That makes him the first rap artist with five record of the year nods. He had been tied with Jay-Z with four each.)
Doechii’s “Anxiety” is the first song that samples a previous record of the year winner (“Somebody That I Used to Know” by Gotye featuring Kimbra) to be nominated for that same award.
Seven of the nominees for record of the year are also nominated for song of the year. The only difference between the two sets of nominees is that Chappell Roan’s “The Subway” is up for record and not song, while “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters is up for song and not record. It’s the first time there was just one difference in the two lists since the 2015 ceremony, when Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” (featuring Charli xcx) was up for record but not song, while Hozier’s “Take Me to Church” was up for song but not record.
Jack Antonoff had both good and bad news in this year’s nominations. He has two nominations in each of three high-profile categories – album, record and song of the year. That brings his career total of song of the year nominations to eight, which puts him in a tie with his frequent collaborator Taylor Swift for the most nods in the history of the category. But he was passed over for a nod for producer of the year, non-classical nod for the second year in a row.
The nominees for producer of the year, non-classical are Dan Auerbach (his fifth), Blake Mills (his third), Dijon (his second) and Cirkut and Sounwave (the first for each).
Amy Allen and Henry Walter also each have two song of the year nominees this year.
Leon Thomas is the only best new artist nominee who is also nominated in another “Big Four” category. His Mutt is vying for album of the year. Alex Warren, thought to be a sure thing for record and song of the year nods, wasn’t nominated in either category.
Three songs from Sinners are competing for best song written for visual media. Only two other films have ever had three or more nominees in this category. Waiting to Exhale had three in 1997; Barbie had four two years ago.
In best traditional country album, there is a rare instance of a parent and child competing in the same category. Willie Nelson, 92, is nominated for Oh What a Beautiful World. His son, Lukas Nelson, 36, is nominated for American Romance.
Barbra Streisand is nominated for best traditional pop vocal album for The Secret of Life: Partners, Volume 2, 62 years after she received her first three nods for The Barbra Streisand Album and its standout track, “Happy Days Are Here Again.” That puts her in a tie with composer John Williams for the longest span of Grammy nominations. Williams received his first nod in 1962 and his three most recent nods in 2024.
Streisand also received her 14th nomination in the category of best traditional pop vocal album – a category she has yet to win. Will this be her year? She’s competing with Laufey, who won in this category two years ago; Lady Gaga, who won twice for collabs with Tony Bennett; Elton John & Brandi Carlile; Jennifer Hudson; and Laila Biali, a Canadian jazz singer and pianist who has worked with Chris Botti and Sting.
The late pianist, composer and bandleader Chick Corea received two nominations, bringing his career total of nods to 77, a total topped by only four people in Grammy history: Beyoncé (99), Jay-Z (89), Paul McCartney (84) and Quincy Jones (80). Corea died in 2021 at age 79.
All of the nominees for songwriter of the year, non-classical, have been nominated in that category previously. This is the third nod for Amy Allen, Edgar Barrera and Jessie Jo Dillon; the second for Tobias Jesso Jr. and Laura Veltz.
As always, best audio book, narration and storytelling recording provided an eclectic batch of nominees. This year’s nominees are The Dalai Lama; Fab Morvan, the surviving member of Milli Vanilli; Supreme Court justice Ketanji Brown Jackson; comedian (and five-time Grammy host) Trevor Noah; and Kathy Garver, who played the oldest child on the 1960s sitcom Family Affair.
Final-round voting extends from Dec. 12 to Jan. 5. The 68th annual Grammy Awards will be presented at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on Feb. 1.
