Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar lead the nominees for the 2026 Grammy Awards, while K-Pop has broken into the song of the year category for the first time.
For the second year in a row, Compton rapper Lamar has the most nominations – nine in total – including a coveted album of the year nod for the sleek, fiery GNX.
Gaga is also up for the main prize for Mayhem, a record that leans into her own history, and marks a return to her electro-pop roots. She has seven nominations overall.
Meanwhile, two K-Pop songs are shortlisted for song of the year: Rosé and Bruno Mars’ frothy pop hit APT, and Hunter/x’s Golden, the breakout hit from Netflix’s animated film K-Pop Demon Hunters.
Both Gaga and Lamar have five previous nominations for album of the year, but neither has ever lifted the coveted gold gramophone in that category.
If Lamar wins next February, GNX would become the first rap album to earn the night’s main prize since Outkast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2004.
He faces competition from fellow rap maverick Tyler, The Creator with his wildly inventive Chromakopia; and reunited hip-hop duo Clipse, whose Let God Sort Em Out is their first release since 2009.
It is the first time in Grammy history that three rap albums have made the shortlist for album of the year.
Also nominated is Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny – who is also set to headline next year’s Super Bowl half time show.
He’s shortlisted for the musically ambitious Debí Tirar Más Fotos, which fuses live instrumentation with the hip-swaying pulse of reggaeton.
It is only the second time an entirely Spanish-language album has been shortlisted for the prize. The first was Bad Bunny’s 2022 release Un Verano Sin Ti.
British stars Olivia Dean and Lola Young received their first ever Grammy nominations in the best new artist category, where they will compete against pop star Addison Rae and global girl group Katseye.
Meanwhile, Rosé, who is one quarter of the phenomenally successful girl group Blackpink, is the first K-Pop idol to be shortlisted for any of the Grammys’ “Big Four” awards.
APT, which riffs on Toni Basil’s 1980s classic Mickey, is also nominated for best pop duet; while co-writer Amy Allen is up for songwriter of the year.
Elsewhere, a collection of meditations by the Dalai Lama is up against the autobiography of Milli Vanilli’s Fab Morvan in the shortlist for best audiobook.
The nominees were revealed in a live stream by a host of stars, including 2025 winners Chappell Roan, Doechii and Sabrina Carpenter, and British musicians such as Sam Smith and Marcus Mumford. (BBC)
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