The nominations for the 2026 Grammy Awards have been revealed, and as always, there’s lots to sort through here for music fans. Some major acts are nowhere to be seen, while others got just the right recognition. Figuring out which is which, and celebrating or frowning accordingly, is half the fun of Grammy nominations day. So let’s get to it!

As a reminder, music released between August 31, 2024 and August 30, 2025 was eligible for nomination. The awards will be given on February 1, 2026 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

Here are 20 of the biggest snubs and most welcome surprises in this year’s nominations.

SNUB: Nothing for Lorde? What Was That?

Lorde crushed all expectations with her fourth album, Virgin, offering up high-energy pop bangers in sharp contrast to 2021’s Solar Power. But that didn’t matter to the Academy. Lorde didn’t receive a single nomination, despite her star power and the album’s success.

This shouldn’t come as a total surprise, since Lorde and the Grammys have a complicated history. Things got especially thorny in 2018, when her acclaimed LP Melodrama got a coveted Album of the Year nomination, but the Recording Academy nonetheless declined to offer her a solo performance slot in the telecast. (The other nominees in the category that year, all of whom happened to be male, were reportedly all offered solo performances.) A couple days after the Grammys ceremony, where she lost out on the big award, Lorde took out a full-page advertisement in her local paper, pointedly thanking her fans for “believing in female musicians” in what some saw as a critical response to the Academy’s sexism. Notably, the only time Lorde has actually won a Grammy was in 2014, when she made history as the youngest songwriter to receive the Song of the Year award. —Maya Georgi

SNUB: The Weeknd played the game and lost again

This past February, the Weeknd returned to the Grammy Awards four years after launching a highly-publicised boycott and slamming what he called the “corruption” of the nominations process. Back in 2021, he’d been burned by the fact that his album After Hours and its colossal single ‘Blinding Lights’ received zero nominations; now, he buried the hatchet with a surprise performance of two standout tracks from his latest album, Hurry Up Tomorrow. Apparently, that wasn’t enough to get him any better consideration from the Recording Academy, who have shut him out across the board once again. Hurry Up Tomorrow was far from unsuccessful, and his single ‘Timeless’ recently became his 28th song to surpass one billion streams on Spotify. He even let Republic Records run For Your Consideration ads. And yet, it seems, some things never change, and playing the game doesn’t always work. No hard feelings, though, right? “I’ve got no beef, it was so long ago,” the Weeknd told The New York Times earlier this year, “and they did a lot of changes, I mean, we got under the hood.” —Larisha Paul

SURPRISE: The Academy loves Bad Bunny’s ‘DtMF’

Bad Bunny’s six nominations this year reflect just what a massive year he had. The Puerto Rican artist ran victory laps all throughout 2025, off the success of the chart-topping DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS — and clearly the Academy noticed. The LP is only the second Spanish-language album to get nominated for Album of the Year (the first was Bad Bunny’s 2022 release Un Verano Sin Ti). But while it’s no surprise to see the project get nominated, many predicted the salsa smash ‘Baile Inolvidable’ would be the song with all the Grammy nods; instead, the Academy leaned toward the emotional ‘DtMF’, which weaves traditional bomba rhythms with a heart-wrenching message about living in the moment and loving people while there’s still time. —Julyssa Lopez

SNUB: Brandi Carlile and Elton John Miss the Top Categories

Going into this year, Elton John and Brandi Carlile had a combined 61 nominations at the Grammy Awards. Given the Recording Academy’s well-known adoration for both artists and their love for intergenerational collaboration (à la Allison Krauss and Robert Plant), their album Who Believes in Angels? would’ve once seemed like a lock for any of the major all-genre categories. Instead, they were nominated for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, and are nowhere to be seen in Album, Record, or Song of the Year. In fact, those determining the nominations this year seemed to break from past darlings in the top categories, and it’s not just Brandi and Elton: Jon Batiste, a Grammy darling who won Album of the Year in 2022, also struck out in the all-genre categories. —Jonathan Bernstein

SURPRISE: Lots of Love for Hayley Williams

Hayley Williams released one of the best albums of the year with her solo LP Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party and it’s nice to see the Academy recognize that. The singer received four nominations for the album, including Best Rock Song, Best Rock Performance, Best Alternative Music Performance, and Best Alternative Music Album. Williams is no stranger to Grammy love — she received plenty of nods and wins as part of Paramore. She even got her first nod as a solo artist for her vocal contributions to B.o.B’s 2010 hit ‘Airplanes Part II’ (which also featured Eminem). But these nominations are the first time the Grammys have recognised Williams’ own solo work, which feels like a momentous win for the artist. —M.G.

SNUB: Benson Boone backflips out of the picture

This past February, Benson Boone stirred up some of the more heated debates after he back-flipped his way across the Grammys stage. He was up for Best New Artist at the 2025 awards, and he joined fellow nominees Doechii, Teddy Swims, Shaboozey, Raye, and Khruangbin for a special medley of their hits. In the months after, Boone dropped a new album and a couple more hits, but that wasn’t enough to keep him in the good graces of Grammy voters. While many of his fellow Class of ‘25 BNA nominees are up again for more song and album nods, Boone is nowhere to be found on this year’s list. Nothing magical or mystical about that. —Brittany Spanos

SNUB: Where’s ‘That’s So True’?

Gracie Abrams scored her first Top 10 hit with this euphoric Secret of Us (Deluxe) cut, a quick-witted takedown of an ex that doubles as a warning to his new girl. You could feel the song’s impact in moments like Abrams’ SNL performance, that time Elle Fanning lip-synced it on The Tonight Show, and when Abrams’ co-writer, Audrey Hobert, broke out with her own album this summer. It’s a bummer it didn’t get a nod for Song of the Year, particularly since Abrams already has two Grammy noms under her belt, for Best New Artist (2024) and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (last year, for her duet with that up-and-coming artist Taylor Swift). Hopefully, Abrams takes one home for her next album. —Angie Martoccio

SURPRISE: Clipse get a shot at Album of the Year

When’s the last time you heard it like this? It’s been a long time since the Clipse got any love from the Grammys — 22 years, to be precise, when the brotherly duo nabbed their one and only nomination til now, a Best Rap/Sung Collaboration nod at the 2003 awards for their feature on Justin Timberlake’s ‘Like I Love You’. (They lost to Nelly and Kelly Rowland’s ‘Dilemma’.) Pusha T and Malice infamously got stuck in major-label hell the following year due to a merger, and they eventually ended the group in 2010. Since then, Pusha has become a Grammy regular, earning five nominations for his solo work, including two for Best Rap Album. And this year, after reuniting in spectacular fashion for their album Let God Sort Em Out, they’ve matched that total with five new nominations, including three rap categories (song, performance, and album), Best Music Video, and a prestigious nod for Album of the Year. In a year that’s been all about righting past music industry wrongs for these guys, these nominations offer them some well-deserved and long-overdue respect. —Simon Vozick-Levinson

SNUB: Role Model gets left on read

Role Model is one of 2025’s biggest music-biz success stories, with his single ‘Sally, When the Wine Runs Out’ becoming a legit phenomenon that’s swept up everyone from Charli XCX to Al Roker in its delightfully catchy pop-rock wave. The singer, whose real name is Tucker Pillsbury, has charmed the world this year — but apparently he hasn’t yet won over the Recording Academy, which gave him a big round zero nominations. We thought he had a decent shot at Best New Artist and the pop categories, but the Grammys had other ideas. Good thing he’s already working on his next album, as he recently told María Zardoya in their Musicians on Musicians digital cover story. —S.V.L.

SNUB: Nothing special for ‘Ordinary’

One of the year’s biggest songs seems like it didn’t even hit the radar of Grammy voters this year. Alex Warren’s ‘Ordinary’ topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 10 consecutive weeks and was a streaming giant, becoming flat-out unavoidable within a few months of its release this past February. It looked like a shoo-in for some Grammy love this year, but the song was roundly ignored, even in the pop categories. Warren, however, did get a nod in the highly competitive Best New Artist category. That’s a nice consolation prize, but it’s still surprising that the song that placed him there was all but forgotten. —B.S.

SNUB: No rap or country in Best New Artist

Rap and country music are both completely, and surprisingly, absent from this year’s Best New Artist nominations.

What happened here? Let’s start with rap. The “no new stars in hip-hop” discussion persists, for good reason. Major labels’ deprioritization of rap has made it hard for rising acts to achieve the groundswell of national buzz that might be needed for a Best New Artist nomination. But BigXthaPlug — who crossed over into Nashville with his ambitious album, I Hope You’re Happy — could have been the exception. The Texan has been on the Billboard Hot 100 every week since April, giving him the longest active streak of any rapper. BigX singles like ‘All The Way’ with Bailey Zimmerman and ‘Home’ with Shaboozey have been chart mainstays. Central Cee, who made waves with Can’t Rush Greatness, and Ken Carson, who dropped A Great Chaos and More Chaos, also seemed like realistic contenders, but neither got a nod.

It was a big year for women in country music, too, with stars Ella Langley and Megan Moroney garnering prominence with their albums Still Hungover and Am I Okay?, respectively. Langley found a radio hit with her Riley Green duet ‘You Look Like You Love Me’, and Moroney scored a duet (and tour opening slot) with country legend Kenny Chesney and a massively successful second album. Neither of them got nominated, either. It’s strange not to see two of the most important genres in music completely absent from a Big Four category like this one. —Tomás Mier and Andre Gee

SURPRISE: Plaqueboymax is the first Twitch streamer nominated for a Grammy

The worlds of content creators and musicians continue to become one. Take ‘Victory Lap’, initially cooked up during Plaqueboymax‘s London streams from earlier this year. The song picked up a nomination for Best Dance/Electronic Recording, and finds the UK rap icon Skepta joining forces with Fred Again (whose album ten days is up for Best Electronic/Dance Album) over fleet-footed production that blends hip-hop and electronic music. It’s a fitting example of how streaming platforms like Twitch, where Max hosts his ‘In the Booth’ series featuring artists making a track together in real time, are changing the nature of collaboration. Now, the 22-year-old streamer might pick up his first-ever Grammy. —Jeff Ihaza

SURPRISE: Girl groups recognised!

Girl groups are getting a nice Grammy moment this year. Katseye scored a Best New Artist nod, while animated K-pop trio Huntr/x picked up multiple nominations for their viral hit ‘Golden’ from KPop Demon Hunters — including Song of the Year, marking the first girl-group song nominated in that category in nearly two decades. Both ‘Golden’ and Katseye’s ‘Gabriela’ also made history in Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, which had never seen a girl group nominated since the category began more than a decade ago. Meanwhile, British R&B trio FLO earned a Best Progressive R&B Album nomination for Access All Areas. —T.M.

SNUB: Playboi Carti gets shut out

One of the more egregious cases of an artist being overlooked by the Recording Academy this year is Playboi Carti being frozen out, as the rapper received nary a Grammy nomination despite enjoying a dominant year. He’s arguably one of the most influential artists in music today, a figure whose every move commands global attention. His long-awaited album MUSIC was one of the year’s buzziest releases, arriving after years of delay and instantly reaffirming his cult-like status. The project was met with widespread acclaim, proving that Carti’s artistry goes far deeper than the hype that often surrounds him. While sales and popularity aren’t always the best indicators of artistic merit, Playboi Carti has proven himself to be more than a trendsetter and lightning rod. He’s also a talented artist with substance that belies the surface. His creative evolution continues to redefine what it means to be a modern icon — it’s just surprising the Grammys don’t seem to view him the same way, at least this year. —Preezy Brown

SNUB: Two superproducers get ignored in Producer of the Year

Maybe the Grammys were just trying to switch it up, but two of the most dominant producers in pop and beyond were somehow left unrecognised in the Producer of the Year category. Andrew Watt co-produced one of the most-nominated albums of the year, Lady Gaga’s Mayhem, among many other projects, but was left off the slate. Repeat Producer-of-the-Year winner Jack Antonoff was also left off, despite branching out to work on Kendrick Lamar’s Album of the Year-nominated GNX and another contender in that category, Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend. —Brian Hiatt

SURPRISE: JID gets his first nomination

Regarded as one of hip-hop’s elite lyricists, JID has built a reputation for intricate wordplay, nimble flows, and a distinct creative voice — yet somehow, he’s never received a Grammy nomination for his own work. That now changes, with the Atlanta spitter being nominated for two Grammy Awards as the lead artist: His acclaimed studio album God Does Like Ugly earned a nod for Best Rap Album, and its hit single ‘Wholeheartedly’ featuring Ty Dolla $ign and 6Lack was included in the Best Melodic Rap Performance lineup.

JID’s first brush with the Recording Academy came in 2020 through his contributions to J. Cole and Dreamville Records’ Revenge of the Dreamers III, which earned a nomination for Best Rap Album. His fiery performance on the standout single ‘Down Bad’, alongside J. Cole, Bas, EarthGang, and Young Nudy, also secured a nod for Best Rap Performance. Still, both nominations ended in losses, leaving the gifted lyricist recognized but unrewarded. His most recent nomination prior this year arrived in 2021 via his feature on Doja Cat’s Planet Her. That album’s deluxe edition got a nomination for Album of the Year at the 64th Grammy Awards, but again, JID walked away without the trophy.

This year, the Best Rap Album field is littered with heavyweight releases that were also nominated in the Album, Record, and Song of the Year categories, which God Does Like Ugly is not. This makes beating out the competition a tall, though still possible, task for him. For our money, JID’s best odds at winning his first Grammy will be via an upset over Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s ‘Luther’ for Best Melodic Rap Performance. —P.B.

SURPRISE: Lefty Gunplay gets a Grammy nod for just six words

One cool thing about the Grammys is that they acknowledge everyone who’s credited on a song, no matter how big or small their contribution. Lefty Gunplay, the charismatic L.A. artist whom Kendrick Lamar featured on ‘tv off’, may have just broken a record for fewest words to a Grammy nomination. The song is nominated for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song. Lefty offered just six words to the GNX track, memorably rapping “Shit gets crazy, scary, spooky, hilarious” toward the song’s conclusion. He didn’t need a whole verse to make his presence felt, or to get a chance at his first Grammy. —A.G.

SURPRISE: Bobby Pulido gets a nomination

At the end of last year, Tejano icon Bobby Pulido announced he was stepping away from music to pursue a career in politics. But before hanging up his guitar, he’s closing that chapter with a bang: earning a final Grammy nomination for Por La Puerta Grande, his ambitious, collaboration-filled live album featuring duets with Bronco, Alicia Villarreal, David Bisbal, and Kinky. The project, released just ahead of the Grammy cutoff, reimagines some of Pulido’s biggest hits alongside those of his collaborators. Now, as he campaigns in what he described to Rolling Stone as “the most conservative district in South Texas,” he can add one more Grammy nod to his résumé. Pulido was last nominated in 2004 for Móntame when the Grammys had a Tejano-specific category. Now, it’s bunched in with the Best Música Mexicana category. —T.M.

SURPRISE: Eddy Kenzo brings some variety to Best African Music Performance

In its short history (just two years before this one), the African Music Performance category has been dominated by tracks that have had obvious crossover success in the U.S., primarily Afrobeats songs by Nigerian artists with flecks of South African Amapiano. Breaking that monotony this year is Ugandan artist Eddy Kenzo’s ‘Hope & Love’, a collaboration with classically trained instrumentalist Mehran Matin. Kenzo has been popular in his country and across pockets of the African diaspora since his 2010 breakthrough, ‘Stamina’, but his stature hasn’t risen to the pop stardom of the acts that he’s competing against here, like Tyla, Burna Boy, Davido, Wizkid, and Ayra Starr. However, this isn’t Kenzo’s first time competing against Burna Boy at the Grammys — in 2023, his appearance on American artist Matt B’s ‘Gimmie Love’ went up against Burna’s smash ‘Last Last’ in the Global Music Performance category. (Both lost.) —Mankaprr Conteh

SURPRISE: Sexyy Red earns her first Grammy nod

Much like Lefty Gunplay on the Kendrick song, Sexyy Red scored a Best Rap Song nomination for her brief guest appearance on Tyler the Creator’s “Sticky,” which also features Glorilla and Lil Wayne. This might come to the surprise — and displeasure — of her detractors. Despite the St. Louis rapper’s often inescapable popularity and crude charm, the merits of her explicit, uncomplicated rapping and self-proclaimed “ghetto” persona have always been doubted. When Rolling Stone named her “SkeeYee” the best rap song of 2023, we were accused by some of “mocking” Black music by celebrating its clear impact and cultural relevance. The producer behind her super-hard sound arsenal, Tay Keith, might have best captured why more high-brow stars like Tyler have flocked to her: “She’s having fun and it really inspired me to just have more fun with this shit,” Keith told Rolling Stone last year. “She’s just enjoying herself and that should be the true meaning of music. You don’t have to be serious all the time.” —M.C.

From Rolling Stone.