Kendrick Lamar is returning to his throne as king of the Grammysscoring nine nominations at the 2026 show, followed by Leon Thomas, who has six bids. Doechii, SZA, Clipse and Tyler, the Creator, are each up for five honors. At the same time, The Weeknd — who ended his four-year-long boycott of the awards by submitting to several categories — was severely snubbed with zero nominations.
Lamar, who won record and song of the year at the 2025 Grammys with “Not Like Us,” is competing for Album of the Year — an honor he has yet to win — for a sixth time with GNX. For the first time, three albums are nominated simultaneously for the top prize as well as Best Rap Album: joining Lamar are Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out and Tyler, the Creator’s Chromatica.
GloRilla’s Glorious and JID’s God Does Like Ugly are also up for best rap album. Female rappers are well represented throughout this year’s nominations: Doechii’s “Anxiety” is up for Record and Song of the Year, Best Music Video, Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance, where she will compete with Cardi B’s “Outside” (her new album will qualify for the 2027 show).
GloRilla is nominated twice for Best Rap Performance — for “TGIF” and for her guest appearance on Tyler, the Creator’s “Sticky,” which also gives Sexyy Red her first-ever Grammy nomination. Rapsody is nominated for Best Melodic Rap Performance — the award she won earlier this year — for “WeMaj” with Terrace Martin and Kenyon Dixon.
Tyler, the Creator’s nominations extend outside of rap: he’s also nominated for Best Alternative Music Album with Don’t Tap the Glass.
Leon Thomas not only dominated the R&B categories, but he’s also up for Album of the Year with Mutt as well as Best New Artist, where British retro soul newcomer Olivia Dean is also nominated. Thomas’ hit “Mutt” technically qualified for the 2025 Grammys since it was released in August 2024, but his live version of the song from NPR’s Tiny Desk is nominated for Best R&B Performance, where he will compete with another crossover hit, Kehlani’s “Folded.” Chris Brown and Bryson Tiller’s “It Depends,” Justin Bieber’s “Yukon” and Summer Walker’s “Heart of a Woman” round out the nominees.
“Folded” is the leading contender for Best R&B Song — which could give Kehlani her first-ever Grammy if she wins — and is nominated alongside Thomas’ “Yes It Is,” “It Depends,” “Heart of a Woman” and Durand Bernarr’s “Overqualified.”
Mariah the Scientist was snubbed and didn’t earn a single nomination, while Teyana Taylor and Coco Jones received one each — both for Best R&B Album. The Weeknd, who gave a surprise performance at the 2025 Grammys and ended his boycott, submitted his latest album for more than a dozen awards in pop, R&B and rap, but was shunned again. Drake is still boycotting the awards show, but did earn a nomination for Best Melodic Rap Performance with “Somebody Loves Me” with PartyNextDoor.
A year after Beyoncé’s historic win for Best Country Album, another Black artist has a chance to win a similar award: Charley Crockett is up for Best Traditional Country Album with Dollar a Day. Shaboozey scored three country nominations.
Other nominees include Sade, who will compete for Best Music Video with “Young Lion” and judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is up for Best Audio Book, Narration or Storytelling Recording for her memoir, Lovely One. She will compete with Trevor Noah, the Dalai Lama, and Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli, the duo famously stripped of their Best New Artist Grammy after they revealed they didn’t perform the vocals on their 1989 debut album. Morvan is nominated for You Know It’s True: The Real Story Of Milli Vanilli.
Jamie Foxx scored a nomination for Best Comedy Album, while Jennifer Hudson is up for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. Cynthia Erivo’s two nominations include one for “Defying Gravity” from Wickedshared with Ariana Grande. Omari Hardwick is nominated for Best Spoken Word poetry album for Pageshis joint album with Anthony Hamilton.
Stevie Wonder — who has won 25 Grammys and was last nominated at the 2010 show — earned a nomination for Best Rap Song for co-writing Clipse’s “The Birds Don’t Sing.” The box office hit Sinners earned five nominations, including three for Best Song Written for Visual Media. It will also compete for Best Compilation Soundtrack and Best Score Soundtrack.
The 68th Annual Grammy Awards will be held on Sunday, February 1, 2026.
