After a deep, targeted re-calibrating of its voting base – in direction of one youthful, extra various and extra modern in style – the Recording Academy made strides avoiding the large whiffs they had been as soon as well-known for within the nominations for the 2026 Grammy Awards. However there’ll at all times be snubs, surprises and heated debates throughout the nominations. Listed here are a number of that stood out for us.
SNUB: The Weeknd waits once more
After a shock, hatchet-burying efficiency from the Weeknd at February’s ceremony, it appeared that Abel Tesfaye was lastly able to get again within the Grammy ring after a four-year boycott of the occasion. Tesfaye had been understandably offended that his smash hit 2019 single “Blinding Lights, off 2020’s “After Hours,” whiffed on nominations, and blamed the Grammys’ opacity round voting.
Even Recording Academy chief Harvey Mason Jr. admitted that the Academy bricked that one – “That made for some fascinating studying over breakfast,” Mason Jr. stated onstage. “However you recognize what? Criticism is okay. I heard him. I felt his conviction.”
Properly, it appears to be like like Toronto’s dropping streak in L.A. goes to proceed, as a result of The Weeknd’s “Hurry Up Tomorrow” didn’t land a single nod this yr both. At this level, Tesfaye waking up on Grammy nomination day have to be like watching Yoshinobu Yamamoto stroll out of the Dodger bullpen – one other heartbreak for a hopeful Canadian.
SURPRISE: Nation’s class divorce
Following Beyoncé’s huge cross-genre win streak for “Cowboy Carter,” the Nation classes had been cut up in two – Conventional Nation and Modern Nation Album. The cut up acknowledged the style’s latest industrial dominance and immersion in pop, whereas making an attempt to protect laurels for its extra basic sounds. However the divorce turned out to be an odd one in follow, the place indie favourite Margo Value and R&B-infused Charley Crockett find yourself in Conventional whereas a bluegrass-informed, narrative-driven artist Tyler Childers leads to Modern. The foundations had been drafted to honor each ambition and kind, however someway ended up vibes-based.
SURPRISE: Three rap albums in competition
Hip-hop set a tragic milestone final month – not a single rap music held a spot in Billboard’s Scorching 100 chart for the primary time since 1990. Is the style declining commercially, or not less than dropping a point of mass enchantment? Not throughout the Academy – Grammy voters noticed match to place three masterful rap LP’s up for Album, from esteemed veterans like Kendrick Lamar, Clipse and Tyler, the Creator, every of whom are making uncompromising, bold rap information deep into the center of their careers.
It’s bizarre for the previous heads to contemplate, however maybe rap is changing into extra like jazz within the Academy. Now it’s a critically-beloved, technically dense artwork kind lauded by the Grammys yearly, but additionally a style that, outdoors of some megastars, appears to be slipping from common consciousness on the singles charts.
(With reference to Tyler and style, after beforehand roasting the Academy for confining him to hip-hop classes, he have to be stoked to see his title in Various Music Album for “Don’t Faucet the Glass,” a daring and open-minded decide for a class that features the Remedy, Moist Leg, Hayley Williams and Bon Iver).
SNUB: An “Unusual” letdown
Alex Warren’s “Unusual” was the CVS-core hit of the yr, an inescapable ballad of martial devotion that constructed off his Hype Home fanbase on social media, whereas deftly luring Center America with worship-band undertones. No matter you need to learn into that relating to cultural shifts in America in 2025, its stunning that such a rock-solid piece of songwriting didn’t get nominated for Music or Report, although Warren did flip up for New Artist.
SURPRISE: “Golden” earns its medal
What ought to the Grammys do about “Golden?” The smash hit from “KPop: Demon Hunters” was undeniably one of many defining singles of the final yr, a uncommon piece of insatiably catchy and vivaciously produced music that just about each tween on the planet may acknowledge. However may the Academy sincerely give a New Artist nod to Huntr/x? It’s not possible to separate “Golden” from the animated-movie context it got here from, so giving EJAE, Audrey Nuna, REI AMI and Mark Sonnenblick nods for Music, somewhat than Report, together with Pop Duo/Group Efficiency and Music Written For Visible Media seems like applicable acknowledgment of the ability and powerhouse efficiency that went into it.
SURPRISE: A excessive “Nervousness” Doechii nod
Doechii’s loosie single spawned a thousand memes about fortunately listening to the opening pings of Gotye’s “Any person That I Used To Know,” solely to show round and smash one thing while you hear Doechii sing “Nervousness, carry on tryin’ me…”
Is that harsh? Doechii deservedly received the Grammy for Rap Album in February, for the masterful “Alligator Bites By no means Heal.” Clearly the Academy loves her, however its nonetheless form of stunning that that “Nervousness” – an early demo riffing on Gotye and Kimbra’s 2011 hit, which took off on TikTok in 2025 whereas incomes a combined reception amongst rap followers – received nods for Report and Music, together with Rap efficiency, Rap Music and Music Video. When the Grammy voters get their enamel in an artist, it takes rather a lot to make them let go.
SNUB: One other Anton-Off Evening
Grammy stalwart Jack Antonoff continues his surprising chilly streak within the Producer, Non-Classical class, lacking out on a nomination regardless of his work on Album frontrunners from Sabrina Carpenter and Lamar. He didn’t get one final yr both, regardless of Grammy approval for each Carpenter and Taylor Swift LP’s. Nonetheless, he stays the Grammys’ Shohei Ohtani of pop producers – even when he misses, he nonetheless looms giant over the sector.
SURPRISE: Shred envy
In a banner yr for steel and exhausting rock operating up huge numbers on the album and streaming charts, there are worthy nominations for Metallic Efficiency from Sleep Token, Ghost, Spiritbox and Turnstile. But we smiled to see the Grammys protecting it bizarre, making room for ‘90s prog-metal stalwarts Dream Theater alongside these extra modern acts. They beforehand received in 2022, and appear to have a deep Academy fanbase in steel. Excessive-five your native Guitar Heart clerk in celebration.
