Kendrick Lamar leads the 2026 Grammy nominations with nine, including album, record and song of the year. Photo / Getty Images
Kendrick Lamar leads the 2026 Grammy nominations with nine, including album, record and song of the year. Photo / Getty Images
Rapper Kendrick Lamar leads the nominations for the 2026 Grammy Awards with nine, the Recording Academy announced Saturday, fresh off winning five golden gramophones at the last gala honouring the best in music.
Lady Gaga ranked second among performers with seven nods for her Mayhem album, followed by a trioof artists tied at six – Bad Bunny, pop princess Sabrina Carpenter and R&B singer-songwriter Leon Thomas.
Lamar will vie for album, record and song of the year honours at the 68th Grammys, which will take place in Los Angeles on February 1.
Also competing for the coveted best album award are: Lady Gaga; Bad Bunny; Carpenter; Thomas; Tyler, the Creator; hip-hop duo Clipse (Pusha T and Malice); and pop superstar Justin Bieber with his first studio effort in four years.
Lamar, 38, dominated the Grammys in February with five awards for the wildly infectious Not Like Us, his viral diss track targeting fellow rapper Drake.
A week later, the Pulitzer Prize winner commanded one of the world’s most high-profile stages as the Super Bowl’s halftime show headliner, performing a string of classics – including the knockout blow in his battle with his Canadian rival.
But the song did not feature on his most recent album GNX – the source of his nominated material this time out.
Kendrick Lamar’s nine nods come after he swept five Grammys in 2025. Photo / Getty Images
Lady Gaga, 39, made a splashy comeback to touring with Mayhem, her collection of full-on pop bangers with a dark edge that embraces her dramatic side.
She will also compete for album, record and song of the year, as will Bad Bunny.
The 31-year-old superstar, born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, also has a pile of nods for next week’s Latin Grammys and will headline the next Super Bowl halftime show in February.
He completed a three-month residency in his native Puerto Rico this year and hosted the season opener of Saturday Night Live.
He is set to open a world tour in support of his album Debi Tirar Mas Fotos (I Should Have Taken More Photos) later this month in the Dominican Republic.
Other artists in the mix are rapper Doechii and R&B artist SZA, each with five nominations.
Golden, the massive hit song from Netflix’s animated smash KPop Demon Hunters, earned three Grammy nods, including one for song of the year.
And up for best new artist are Alex Warren, girl group Katseye, Britain’s Olivia Dean, TikTok dancer-turned-singer Addison Rae, The Marias, sombr, Lola Young and Thomas, who was a Grammy winner two years ago for producing a song by SZA.
Producers Jack Antonoff and Cirkut each earned seven nominations.
There will be two new categories at the 2026 gala – best album cover and best traditional country album. The existing best country album category is now called best contemporary country album.
Industry watchers will be dissecting the full list of nominees in all 95 categories to see if changes made by the Recording Academy, which hands out the awards, have addressed concerns about diversity.
More than 3800 new members were admitted to the academy, expanding the number of eligible Grammy voters.
Half of those new members are age 39 or younger and 58% of them are people of colour, the academy announced this week.
Invitations were also offered to all members of the Latin Recording Academy, which will hand out the Latin Grammys next week in Las Vegas.
“This year’s class reflects the vibrancy of today’s diverse music landscape,” Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jnr said in a statement.
So why is Taylor Swift not in the Grammys mix? After all, Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl has been ubiquitous since its release in October.
It is not eligible for the 2026 Grammys because the window closed on August 30, but look for the pop megastar to be front and centre in the 2027 edition.
