Kendrick Lamar leads the 2026 Grammy Award nominations. The rapper is up for nine trophies at February’s ceremony: record, song and album of the year — marking the third time he’s had simultaneous nominations in those big categories — as well as pop duo/group performance, melodic rap performance, rap song and rap album. He’s also nominated twice in the rap performance category.
Lamar, who is riding the success of last year’s blockbuster GNX album, has 22 Grammy career wins and 66 nominations. GNX is his fifth consecutive studio album to be nominated for album of the year, something no other artist has ever done. 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 Outkast in 2004 for Speakerboxxx/The Love Below and Lauryn Hill in 1999 for The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.
Lady Gaga, Jack Antonoff and Canadian record producer/songwriter Cirkut follow Lamar with seven nominations each.
Lady Gaga is up for song, record and album of the year — her first time receiving nominations in all three categories simultaneously. She could also 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. He’s also nominated for rap song for the first time. That’s for tv off with Lamar, featuring Lefty Gunplay.
Antonoff and Cirkut will face off in the producer of the year, non-Classical category. If Antonoff wins, he will tie Babyface’s record of most career wins in the category, with four.
That’s not all. Cirkut is up for both record and song of the year, twice — for Lady Gaga’s Abracadabra and Rosé and Bruno Mars’ APT. — as well as album of the year and best dance pop recording.
In addition to Lady Gaga’s Mayhem and Lamar’s GNX, the album of the year category is rounded out by Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend, Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos, Justin Bieber’s Swag, Clipse, Pusha T & Malice’s Let God Sort Em Out, Leon Thomas’ Mutt and Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia.
Only recordings commercially released in the US between August 31, 2024 through August 30, 2025 were eligible for nominations. The final round of Grammy voting, which determines its winners, will take place December 12 through January 5. (AP)
