Kendrick Lamar leads 2026 Grammy nominations, followed by Lady Gaga, Jack Antonoff and Cirkut
CBC
Kendrick Lamar leads the 2026 Grammy Award nominations, with the potential to take home nine trophies.
Three of those nine nominations are for the biggest awards of the night: record, song and album of the year. This marks the third time he's had simultaneous nominations in those big categories, and makes him and SZA the first duet partners to receive two record of the year nominations.
Lamar has 22 Grammy career wins and 66 nominations. GNX is his fifth consecutive studio album to be nominated for album of the year, making him the first solo artist in Grammy history to do so. If it wins, it will be his first win in the category. And it will be only the third rap album to win the top prize, following Lauryn Hill in 1999 for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and Outkast in 2004 for Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.
In fact, no one nominated in the album of the year category this year has ever won it before. Other nominees include Bad Bunny's Debí Tirar Más Fotos, Justin Bieber's Swag and Sabrina Carpenter's Man's Best Friend.
This is not only the first time three rap albums have nominated in the category, but also only the second time an all-Spanish language album has made it. The first was also a Bad Bunny release, 2022's Un Verano Sin Ti.
Lady Gaga, producer Jack Antonoff and Canadian producer-songwriter Cirkut follow Lamar, with seven nominations each.
Similar to Lamar, Gaga is up for song, record and album of the year — and it's also her first time receiving nominations in all three categories simultaneously. She could score potential wins in the pop solo performance, pop vocal album, dance pop recording and traditional pop vocal album categories.
Antonoff is nominated in the record, album and song of the year categories twice, for his work with Lamar and Sabrina Carpenter. While he's been left out of the producer of the year race for the second year in a row, he's also nominated for rap song for the first time with tv off, his song with Lamar and Lefty Gunplay.
Likewise, Cirkut is up 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.
Justin Bieber has nabbed nominations for best pop vocal album and album of the year for Swag, best pop solo performance for Daises and best R&B performance for Yukon. If he wins, it could mark the start of an exciting comeback year for Bieber, who's set to headline Coachella in April 2026.
Drake and Kaytranada earned one and two nods, respectively. But in a surprising turn of events, The Weeknd did not earn any nominations this year for his album Hurry Up Tomorrow, after famously ending his boycott of the awards show at last year's ceremony.
The best new artist category promises to be a tight race, with popular acts like global girl group Katseye, Olivia Dean, Leon Thomas and Alex Warren going head to head. Of note from this category, Thomas is having an especially good year with six nominations, including one for album of the year.
K-pop is definitely getting the spotlight this year. Rosé, a member of the juggernaut girl group Blackpink, is the first K-pop artist to receive a nomination for record of the year. As well, the blockbuster Netflix film KPop Demon Hunters scored four nominations, three of which are for the hit song Golden.
There are a number of first-time nominees as well this year, including Tate McRae, Zara Larsson and PinkPantheress.
