Sabrina Carpenter is the first artist confirmed to be performing at the 2026 Grammy Awards.
The Espresso hitmaker received six nods – Album of the Year for Man’s Best Friend, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performanc’ and Best Music Video for Manchild – and will grace the stage at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena on February 1, performing in front her peers, music industry folk and viewers at home.
Kendrick Lamar topped the nominations, earning nine nods including Record, Song and Album of the Year.
It means the 38-year-old rapper’s latest album, GNX, is continuing his run of success, becoming his fifth consecutive studio album to receive an Album of the Year nomination – a record unmatched by any other artist.
The Recording Academy revealed a star-studded list that also included Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga, Addison Rae and Justin Bieber.
Kendrick was also nominated in the Pop Duo/Group Performance, Melodic Rap Performance, Rap Song and Rap Album categories, and twice in Rap Performance.
If GNX wins Album of the Year, it would mark his first victory in that category and only the third rap album ever to win the top prize, following Speakerboxxx/The Love Below by Outkast in 2004 and The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1999.
Lady Gaga, record producer Jack Antonoff and Canadian producer Cirkut follow closely in the nods with seven nominations each.
Gaga received her first-ever simultaneous nominations for Song, Record and Album of the Year, and is also recognised in Pop Solo Performance, Pop Vocal Album, Dance Pop Recording and Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
Jack Antonoff is nominated in Record, Album and Song of the Year categories for his work with Lamar and Carpenter.
He and Cirkut will compete for Producer of the Year (non-classical).
Cirkut’s work earned nominations for both Record and Song of the Year twice – for Lady Gaga’s Abracadabra and Rosé and Bruno Mars’s APT – as well as Album of the Year and Best Dance Pop recording.
The Album of the Year nominees are Lamar’s GNX, Gaga’s Mayhem, Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend, Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos, Bieber’s Swag, Clipse, Pusha T and Malice’s Let God Sort Em Out, Leon Thomas’s Mutt and Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia.
Bad Bunny’s nomination marks only the second time an all-Spanish-language album has competed for album of the year, following his own Un Verano Sin Ti in 2023.
Other leading nominees include Bad Bunny, Thomas and Serban Ghenea, each with six nominations, and Andrew Watt, Clipse, Doechii, Sounwave, SZA, Turnstile and Tyler, the Creator, who earned five each.
In the Best New Artist category, the nominees are Katseye, Olivia Dean, The Marias, Addison Rae, sombr, Leon Thomas, Alex Warren and Lola Young.
The Record of the Year contenders are Bad Bunny’s DtMF, Carpenter’s Manchild, Doechii’s Anxiety, Eilish’s Wildflower, Lady Gaga’s Abracadabra, Lamar and SZA’s luther, Chappell Roan’s The Subway and Rosé and Bruno Mars’s APT.
Rosé, a member of BLACKPINK, became the first K-pop artist to be nominated in the category.
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. said: “The Grammy Awards are our opportunity to honour the people who make this community so vibrant, and this year’s nominees remind us of the incredible talent driving music forward.”
Taylor Swift did not receive nominations this year as her album The Life of a Showgirl, released in October, fell outside the eligibility window.
Her previous album, The Tortured Poets Department, was released in April 2024.
The 68th Grammys introduced two new categories – Best Traditional Country Album and Best Album Cover.